Ellen Ash Peters

Ellen Ash Peters (born 1930-03-21 in Berlin) was appointed to the Connecticut Supreme Court in 1978. She is the first woman to appointed to that court.

At age nine she emigrated to the United States with her parents from Nazi Germany. Peters attended Hunter College High School in New York, and graduated with honors from Swarthmore College and cum laude from Yale Law School in 1954.

Peters served as professor of law at Yale until 1978 when she was appointed to the Connecticut Supreme Court. Peters remained an adjunct professor from 1978 to 1984. Peters became the first woman to be named a justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court in 1978, the first female Chief Justice in Connecticut history in 1984.

Peters was the first recipient of the Ella T. Grasso Distinguished Service Medal. Peters has been honored by numerous organizations. She was the recipient of the Judiciary Award of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers' Association, the Yale Law School Distinguished Service Medal, and the Hartford College for Women Pioneer Woman Award. In 2002, she was honored with the Warren E. Burger Award from the National Center for State Courts.

Notable committee and board memberships of Peters include the Connecticut Permanent Commission on the Status of Women (1973-74), and the national Board of Directors of the Conference of Chief Justices (1987). Peters became its first woman president in 1994. Due to mandatory retirement restrictions, she resigned as Chief Justice of the state's high court in 1996.

Sources

* Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame [http://www.cwhf.org/hall/peters/peters.htm]
* Remarks by Justice Peters upon her retirement [http://www.cslib.org/memorials/peterseretresig.htm]
* Peters receives award from National Center for State Courts [http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Comm/PressRelease/2002/Peters_2002.HTML]