Frank M. Coffin

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Frank Morey Coffin was born in Lewiston, Maine on July 11, 1919. He was educated in Lewiston public schools and graduated from Bates College in 1940. Coffin graduated from Harvard Business School in 1943, and Harvard Law School in 1947.

Coffin served in the Pacific Theater with the United States Navy as an ensign and later as a lieutenant from 1943-1946. He was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Lewiston, Maine and was later a law clerk for Federal judge, district of Maine from 1947 to 1949.

Coffin served as chairman of the Maine Democratic State committee from 1954-1956 and was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-fifth and Eighty-sixth Congresses (January 3, 1957-January 3, 1961). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1960, but was unsuccessful for election as Governor of Maine.

Coffin was managing director of Development Loan Fund until October 1961 when he became deputy administrator of the Agency for International Development and served until 1964. He was appointed to serve as United States Representative to Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, France from 1964-1965.

Coffin was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on October 2, 1965 and served as Chief Judge of that court from 1972-1983. He assumed senior status in 1989 and officially entered retirement in the Fall of 2006.

Coffin was the chairman of the U.S. Judicial Conference Committee on the Judicial Branch from 1984-1990. He is a resident of South Portland, Maine.

Coffin is the author of four books: Witness for AID (Houghton Mifflin 1964); The Ways of a Judge: Views from the Federal Appellate Bench (Houghton Mifflin 1980); A Lexicon of Oral Advocacy (National Institute of Trial Advocacy 1985); On Appeal: Courts, Lawyering and Judging (W.W. Norton 1994).

Coffin is an exemplary sculptor, painter and water-colorer. His home is a veritable museum of his own work, which focuses largely on the animal world.

Preceded by Charles Pembroke Nelson	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 2nd congressional district 1957 - 1961	Succeeded by Stan Tupper
Preceded by Bailey Aldrich	Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit 1972-1983	Succeeded by Levin Hicks Campbell
Preceded by John Patrick Hartigan	Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit 1965-1989	Succeeded by Conrad K. Cyr