Commentary: A look back on retiring judge's career.

Byline: Phil Glynn

It is July 29, a few days before Judge John A. Borron, Jr.'s retirement, and his office is full of books. The walls are filled with them, the desk and the floor are covered with stacks of them. While discussing his career, he is constantly reaching for volumes to make a point or to remind him of a date. Quite a few contain his work. The place lacks the tranquility of a library, as the nearly 70-year-old Borron moves on and successor Kathleen Forsyth prepares to move in. But the academic atmosphere is undeniable. With a sweep of the hand encompassing the courtroom across the hall, Borron says, "This court is like a laboratory. I grow with new ideas coming about all the time. It is an evolving thing."

It is ironic then that the work Borron remembers most fondly was done hundreds of miles from his laboratory on the 9th floor of the Jackson County Courthouse. During 13 years in private practice, 18 years as a probate commissioner and 15 years as a judge, Borron says the Guardianship Code Revision he saw through to completion in 1983 is the thing he is "most pleased with and proud of."

The revision came out of a decision more than ten years earlier to reform the state's probate code. As chairman of two drafting subcommittees of the probate and trust committee of The Missouri Bar, Borron was instrumental in the …