Judge Hood was born October 13, 1900, in Anderson, South Carolina, was

graduated from Erskine College in 1921, then left his native states to enroll at Georgetown

University Law School, receiving an LL.B. in 1924 in the first graduating class in the morning

school. He was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar that same year and engaged in

general practice here until his appointment to the bench. he also taught trial and appellate

procedure as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown from 1937 to 1962, and was

awarded the biennial medal from that university in 1957.

During his 30-year tenure as an active judge, he was reappointed for successive 10-

year terms as an associate judge by Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, designated as

Chief Judge on February 1, 1962 by President Kennedy, and reappointed for another 10-

year term on October 4, 1968 by President Johnson. He retired before completing his

term on July 17, 1972, but in his retirement accepted numerous assignments to sit on the

appellate calendar. He handed down his last published opinion on May 2, 1979, in a case

clarifying the distinction between the Federal and District of Columbia narcotics laws.

As Chief Judge and Chairman of the Joint Committee on Judicial Administration, he

had the major responsibility for putting into effect far-reaching Congressional enactments

reorganizing the local courts. In 1968, the jurisdiction of the Municipal Court of Appeals, by

the renamed the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, was expanded from three to six

judges, and vested with direct judicial review of orders of the City Council and District

agencies and commissions. In 1970, Congress passed a more comprehensive

reorganization Act which ended the dual role of the Federal courts of this jurisdiction and

transferred to the Superior Court all cases, including felonies, charging violations of the D.C.

Criminal Code as well as probate and civil cases previously tried in the U.S. District Court.

This statute made Judge Hood’s court, hitherto an intermediate appellate body, the

“highest” appellate court in this jurisdiction, subject to review only by the United States

Supreme Court, and enlarged its composition from six to nine active judges. It also

transferred to his court the authority to approve the new rules of trial and appellate

procedure and to prescribe the standards for admission to the D.C. bar and the discipline of

its members.

It was under Judge Hood’s leadership that the court promulgated rules creating a

new organization, popularly known as the Unified Bar, which all lawyers are required to join

as a condition of practice in the D.C. courts. Prior to his retirement, he also presided at the

civic ceremony of February 1, 1971, which marked the effective date of the 1970 D.C.

Court Reform and Criminal Procedure Act.

As an appellate judge, the opinions written by Judge Hood over a span of 37

years were regarded by the bar as models of clarity and brevity. He had a high regard for

judicial precedent and in private was critical of the school of thought which conceives it as the

duty of the judges to set social policy. It was his view that if judicial interpretations of statute

or the common law become outmoded, it was the obligation of legislative bodies, not the

courts, to effectuate change. At a program sponsored by the Bar Association of the District

of Columbia shortly after his retirement in 1972, Judge Hood was praised not only for the

quality of his decisions, but for the courteous and considerate treatment he accorded all

lawyers who appeared before his court.

Judge Hood was one of the oldest members of the Barristers, having been elected

in 1928. He also belonged to the American and D.C. Bar Associations.