Justice G. Mennen Williams was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1970 and re-elected continuously until 1986, when he could not run for re-election due to his age under state law. He served as Chief Justice of the Court from 1983 – 1986.
Justice Williams graduated from Princeton University and the University of Michigan Law School. He was a lawyer for the Social Security administration under President Roosevelt and served as an air combat intelligence officer in the Naval Reserve in WWII. He was elected Governor of Michigan in 1948, and was re-elected in 1952 and 1956. He did not seek re-election in 1960 and was appointed by President Kennedy as chief of the Bureau of African Affairs, which he ran until his election to the Michigan Supreme Court.