Ellen Ash Peters
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| First woman to be named a justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court; in 1984 she became Chief Justice, the highest position in the state's judiciary.
Ellen Ash Peters was born in Berlin, Germany. She emigrated to the United States with her parents, fleeing Nazi Germany at age 9. She entered Hunter College High School in New York, and graduated with honors from Swarthmore College and cum laude from Yale Law School in 1954. Peters was admitted to the Connecticut Bar in 1957 and to the U.S. District Court for Connecticut in 1965.
She distinguished herself as a professor of law at Yale until her appointment to the Supreme Court in 1978 and continued to serve as an adjunct professor from 1978 to 1984. In 1978, Attorney Peters became the first woman to be named a justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, and, in 1984, she became Chief Justice, which is the highest position in the State's judiciary. She was the first recipient of the Ella T. Grasso Distinguished Service Medal and has received numerous other honors and awards over the years, including 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. Peters has also served on numerous committees and boards, including The Connecticut Permanent Commission on the Status of Women (1973-74). She was appointed to the national Board of Directors of the Conference of Chief Justices in 1987 and became its first woman president in 1994. She resigned as Chief Justice of the state's high court in 1996. Peters and her husband, Philip P. Blumberg, reside in West Hartford. | |||||||||
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