Hu Carmack Anderson (1890-1953) spent most of his life in Jackson, Tennessee. Early in his career, he worked as assistant attorney general, attorney general, and prosecuting attorney. He also held political office as state senator and chairman of the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee. In 1933, the governor appointed him a judge for the Tennessee Court of Appeals. Anderson became its presiding judge in 1942. With the exception of his service in 1947-48 as presiding judge of the Krupp Tribunal, Anderson served the remainder of his career on the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
The Vanderbilt chapter of the Order of the Coif inducted Anderson as an honorary member in 1952 in recognition of his outstanding service in Tennessee and Germany. Anderson died the following year, on May 7, 1953, two days after an accidental fall down an elevator shaft at the Madison County Courthouse. He was valued by colleagues for his impartiality inside the courtroom and his mentoring of junior lawyers, by friends and family for his loyalty, by the larger Jackson community for his active participation in civic clubs and public speaking engagements, and by everyone who knew him for his sense of humor.
Selected Correspondence
The Krupp Case presented Anderson with professional and personal challenges. As library facilities were inadequate in the heavily bombed city of Nürnberg, he depended on colleagues and publishers in the U.S. and England to supply him with crucial legal research materials. Anderson expressed frustration about the bureaucratic legal procedures adopted by the U.S. Military Government in Germany that obligated the tribunal to follow Continental practices. There was an inordinate amount of paperwork. Moreover, the trial was physically and mentally taxing, as his personal letters attest. After daily sessions, Anderson was exhausted. During the trial his stomach ulcer flared up. He longed to return to Jackson, Tennessee, to see his lovely granddaughter. He told one friend back home that he had seen his balance of the world. Anderson wanted to serve the rest of his career as a Tennessee judge, which he did. At his Jackson-Madison County Bar Association Memorial service less than five years later, Anderson’s colleague and close friend Bill Moss shared his wife’s comment: “You know, we lost Hu Anderson at Nurenberg. He has never been the same since.”