DETROIT – Michigan residents can remember the life of retired Court of Appeals Judge Harold Hood on May 30 at 10 a.m. at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, located at 18700 James Couzens Highway in Detroit.
Hood served the Detroit community as a soldier, teacher and Chief Judge Pro Tem of the Michigan Court of Appeals. He died on May 5 at age 84.
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After establishing his own firm, in 1961 he began his first role in public service as assistant corporation counsel for the city of Detroit. Eight years after obtaining that position, he was appointed the first African American to serve as Chief Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
His judicial career began with an appointment to the Common Pleas Court for the city of Detroit in 1973. His years of service on the bench included tenures with Detroit Recorder's Court, the 3rd Judicial Circuit Court of Wayne County, and ultimately the Michigan Court of Appeals, to which his was appointed in 1982. He retired in 2003 as Chief Judge Pro Tem of the Court.
Hood was committed to being fair and eliminating bias and discrimination.
Additionally, Judge Hood has served as a community volunteer as a board member and chair of the Ecumenical Theological Seminary, he was a member and past president of the Old Newsboys Goodfellows Fund of Detroit, and he served on the Advisory Commission of the Nationals Institute on Alcoholism and Addictions.
He earned the 2013 Dennis W. Archer Award for Public Service.
Hood is survived by his wife, Rev. Dr. Lottie Jones Hood; four children Harold K. Hood, Kenneth L. Hood, Kevin J. Hood and Karen T. Hood; one sister, Gloria Lewis and one brother, James Buford; and a host of nieces, nephews, and other relatives, friends and colleagues.