Judge John W. Kern, III, retired Associate Judge of the District of Columbia Court of

Appeals, will become dean of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada.

Kern, who is 56, was named to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in 1968,

after he had worked two years as an assistant to then Attorney General Ramsey Clark,

supervising U.S. attorneys across the country. He also held positions in 1965-66 as an

assistant to former Assistant Attorney General Fred M. Vinson, Jr., who then headed the

Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, as an associate in private practice in

Washington, D.C. (1959-65), and as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia

(1955-59). He previously had clerked for the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for

the District of Columbia Circuit and worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.

While on the bench, Kern was evaluated “exceptionally well-qualified” by the District

of Columbia Judicial Disabilities and Tenure Commission and he was a member of the

Joint Committee on Judicial Administration in the District of Columbia. He also was a director

of the District of Columbia Bar Association, before being named to the bench.

He received his law degree from Harvard University in 1952, and his bachelors

degree from Princeton University in 1949. He has two sons: John, who is a first year

student at the University of California School of Law, Los Angeles, and Stephen, of

Washington, D.C. Judge Kern is engaged to marry Margaret Ann Cantlin of Washington,

D.C. He has been active in the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington,

D.C., as well as serving on the Board of Directors of the Presbyterian Home of the District

of Columbia and participating in Princeton Alumni activities. He said he looks forward to

taking an active part in the Reno community, where he will reside commencing in October.