The Honorable Robert Danhoff
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THE HONORABLE ROBERT DANHOFF Interviewed by Bob LaBrant September 21, 2001 Sponsored by the Michigan Political History Society P.O. Box 4684 East Lansing, MI 48826-4684 This interview is part of the James J. Blanchard Living Library of Michigan Political History. Bob LaBrant: I'm Bob LaBrant for the Michigan Political History Society. I'm speaking today with Judge Judge Danhoff, whose career in law and public service has spanned over 50 years. Judge Danhoff has had a distinguished career as a United States attorney, Constitutional Convention delegate. At the Constitutional Convention, he was the chairman of the committee on the judicial branch. Bob LaBrant: He was a candidate for attorney general. He was in the Romney administration, the legislative and legal advisor, and then for 23 years, a judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals, 16 of those years as Chief Judge. Judge Danhoff: My wife and I went all the way through school together from the beginning, and we got married after we got out of college, and when I got out of college, why, we first settled in Muskegon. The early life politically, well, interesting, I can remember my parents were both active politically, particularly my mother, and sitting on a wagon, I think, holding a flare, and they used to call them torch light parades in little downtown Zeeland. Saturday night was a big time. And so my parents were active politically in the Republican Party. When you come from that side of the state it's Republican. Judge Danhoff: So it goes back a long way. After my father passed away in '58 and my mother still stayed active and she was vice chairman of the Republican County Committee in Ottawa and served on the county Board of Canvassers right up until she died in 1975. So I had a really sort of a background of political activity from the time I was in high school and there on. Bob LaBrant: What attracted you to the law? Judge Danhoff: Oh, I basically, I don't know it just seem very interesting. There were other Danhoffs who were in the law from early on in high school I took debate and things like that and sort of looked to a legal career. After law school we moved up to Muskegon where I went into private practice. But I immediately got active in the Young Republicans with a bunch of young lawyers, some of which were just out of school as I was because they been delayed by the war and we got active in Muskegon County and we eventually, I remember in '52 we took over the county convention from sort of the old guard. Judge Danhoff: And we were all Eisenhower people. That's the first big political campaign that I got into. The older guard was more for Senator Taft. And I could remember going by myself to Chicago and that convention. A friend of mine had been down there, he was an alternate delegate. I slept on the floor of his room in the Steven's Hotel. And we went out to the stadium and watched part of the proceedings wherever Everett McKinley Dirksen pointed to Tom Dooley and said, "You have led us down the primrose path...." Page 2 of 28 Judge Danhoff: And then I got a call one day in the United States' Senate race. As you know Senator Arthur Vandenberg had died and Blair Moody Sr. had been appointed. Bob LaBrant: Blair Moody was a newspaper man wasn't he? Judge Danhoff: He was in Washington and Governor Williams had appointed him to the United States Senate and there was a primary going on from John B. Martin who was the Auditor General at that time. And a congressman Charlie Potter, who came from Cheboygan. Well, of course being from Muskegon most of the Republicans were with Martin. I sort of had not committed. Bob LaBrant: Where was Martin from? Judge Danhoff: Grand Rapids. Bob LaBrant: Oh Grand Rapids. Judge Danhoff: He had been a state senator and was Auditor General. Pretty well known name there. But I got a call one day from the County Chairman who was a young friend of mine and said, "This fellow Potter's coming to town and we got to have somebody. Do you think you might be interested in his campaign?" I looked around and Charlie Potter was a World War II war veteran. Had both legs shot on or gone by just like John Swainson, except his were above the knee was a congressman. Judge Danhoff: And I met the man and I saw running with Eisenhower seemed to me and Blair Moody being the incumbent, be a tough race. And so I said, "yes" and I signed onto the Potter campaign. Potter beat Martin in a primary and got elected. With that came the opportunity. Senator Potter was given the leeway of picking the United States Attorney for the Western District. Senator Homer Ferguson was the senior senator. He said he'd take Detroit. Judge Danhoff: He chose Wendell Miles who was the prosecuting attorney of Ottawa County, his father was a circuit judge. I was only three years out of law school but I knew of Mr. Miles, Wendell Miles went to see him in Grand Haven. Said I would be interested in being Assistant United States Attorney and I waited about a week and he called back and said, "Well, if I get confirmed then you're in." So I left private practice and I commuted to Grand Rapids and I went to work for the Assistant United States Attorney. We covered the same territory they do today. Judge Danhoff: We had two assistants, U.S. Attorney and two assistants. Today, I think they had something like 31 assistants and we covered the whole deal with the three of us. So I left and I started in the U.S. Attorney's Office as Assistant United States Attorney, three years out of law school. I was pretty good. And I remember the article in the Muskegon Chronicle read, "Local Attorney Starts New Job and Has New Son." And my second son had been born on June 28th and I started the first week in July. Page 3 of 28 Judge Danhoff: So with that I got into the U.S. Attorney’s Office. And in those days, not so much today, they are civil service. But it was strictly a political appointed office. I mean you were Republican, so the whole administration changed. And so we replaced Joe Deeb and two assistants and Wendell and I later, a gentleman by the name of Roman Snow, Bud Snow. It turned out eventually that all three of us because judges. Judge Danhoff: Roman Snow became police judge, circuit judge. I went on the appellate bench. Wendell Miles was first circuit in a Federal District. But that was my first so- called political job and I stayed with that through all the '50s and enjoyed it. I enjoyed working with the FBI, the Secret Service. Bob LaBrant: What sorts of prosecutions did you have to do? Judge Danhoff: Oh, we had everything and in those days we were not departmentalized. Whoever walked in. I prosecuted a bank robbery after the fact. I prosecuted the immediate Republican Muskegon County Chairman for mail fraud. Whose daughter and my son started kindergarten together. I went to Judge Miles, later Judge Miles and said, "Maybe you want to take this." He said, "No, it's yours. You started it." Judge Danhoff: And he plead guilty and it was a mail fraud deal. He had a catalog deal. But those types of cases, plus civil cases. Auto accidents, bankruptcy, tax collections. It didn't make any difference because we were so small you just did what you did. Bob LaBrant: In the days before I-96, how long would your commute between Muskegon and Grand Rapids take? Judge Danhoff: That would take a good 30 minutes. It's a lot shorter now. Maybe 15 or 20 at the most with parking. But that was on the old road. But once in a while I had people, you'd be surprised there were other people, some gal worked for the Labor Mediation Board. For a while I commuted with the aircraft recruiter, the Air Corps recruiter who was in Grand Rapids. But I stayed there all the time. I almost moved but then I thought politically, Muskegon were my base. And so we had two children eventually. Earliest part of 60 my oldest daughter was born and Judge Wendell Miles came along and said, "I'm going to seek the Republican nomination for Attorney General in this state." That would be in 1960. Judge Danhoff: And so he had to resign when he got that as United States Attorney. And immediately there were two federal judges to appoint because there was no time and justice. And one of them was Republican nominee and one was a Democrat nominee but they appointed me to be the United States Attorney. Bob LaBrant: And so that was going into 1960. Page 4 of 28 Judge Danhoff: Yeah, that takes us about through the '50s. And again, we were active politically because of the Hatch Act. I couldn't be over it. I couldn't belong to the party. I couldn't become a delegate. But we still went to the state conventions, Judge Miles and I. So I stayed active. Early in 1960, before I became U.S.