Ti's Judge O'Bryan retires after 30 years

TICONDEROGA | After 30 years on the bench as a Ticonderoga Town Judge, James O'Bryan has officially hung up his robe. Embracing retirement and looking forward to the next chapter of his life, O'Bryan looks back at three decades of judicial practice in the place he is proud to call home. "When you have the approval of your town, it makes your job easier. I have always appreciated that about our citizens," O'Bryan acknowledged. "I have always been grateful people have been understanding, the town has been wonderful over the years. People don't realize it but Ticonderoga is one of the busier, if not busiest, town courts in the county. I have been extremely fortunate to have been given all the support and help at all levels of the job, from fellow justices and our court clerks, the Ti Police Department, the Sheriff's Department of Essex County, and the New York State Police." O'Bryan was born and raised in Ticonderoga. He grew up in a house on St. Clair Street, where his younger daughter and her family now reside. He graduated from Ti High in 1975, and went directly into the United States Air Force for the next four years. Following that time spent serving his country, O'Bryan enrolled at Buffalo State and graduated in 1984 with a degree in Criminal Justice. Two weeks after graduating, he returned home to Ti and married his longtime sweetheart, Shari Gunning, within St. Mary's Church. It was the hottest day of the year at a sweltering 96 degrees, and 300 guests crammed themselves into the upstairs of the Knights of Columbus to celebrate the newlyweds with not one AC in sight. He went to work at International Paper where the bulk of his career was spent in Health and Safety as a manager, and also as Operations Manager. In November of 1985, he and Shari welcomed their first daughter, Kaitland, and in May of 1988, Kaitland's sister, Callie, made her arrival into the family. O'Bryan also served as an EMT for the Ticonderoga Emergency Squad, becoming a welcome fixture in the close-knit town he chose to return to. "I had the very distinct honor of being the last person to ever retire out of IP of Ticonderoga," O'Bryan revealed. "I turned the lights off at 8 p.m., four hours before IP officially became Sylvamo." It was a Saturday morning in June of 1995 when a notice in the Press Republican caught O'Bryan's eye. Judge Thatcher had decided to run for town supervisor, leaving his seat on the bench open. "I talked to Shari and thought about it," O'Bryan recalled. "I had spent all that time in college studying law and criminal justice and thought it would be a good fit for me and I decided to run." O'Bryan passed the petition himself, seeking 100 signatures. Every night that summer he and Callie, with her little legs bravely beneath her, would pound the pavement of Ti's neighborhoods, walking and talking to people in their yards, porches, and on the streets. Sometimes, it would be just one person they chatted with, other times it could be up to a dozen. O'Byran would let the voters ask him their questions, curious as to how he would handle certain types of cases and govern if he were elected as the new judge. "To this very day, I have seniors in our community who will tell me the nicest thing I ever did was to come out and talk to them," O'Bryan said. "That is important to me." His method proved effective, his messaging resonating with voters. Despite there being stiff competition for the highly desired judge's seat (13 candidates total, seven Republicans and six democrats), the Republican O'Bryan with his St. Clair Street roots was the victor. "Most people don't fully understand the courts," O'Byran admitted. "They know you go there when you have done something wrong, but there is much more to that. I look at the court as a place where you can seek hope, that hopefully what you learn there helps make you a better person." And the cornerstone on which O'Bryan ran his court from was respect. "People would say to me, 'Isn't it awful hard when you get someone who has done bad things?' I said yes, but they are still human beings, whatever they did, they have to answer for," he said. "What I need to make sure is that they are treated with dignity and respect and their rights are granted to them. That has always been the basis from day one for me." A skill O'Bryan found to be crucial in the court was a simple one, yet not always an easy one to master. "About 95 percent of the job is listening," he noted. "Learning to listen is something I struggled at, but as I end my career I can tell you I was a good listener. I would much rather listen to what was going on around me and make my decision from there on a fair and clear basis, it's important to keep focused on what the issues are. That has been a key learning point, as a judge who has taught many classes, I can tell you that is one thing that I always impressed upon younger judges." O'Bryan was also able to harness and control his emotions, with no outward displays of excitement, his composure always kept in check. A measured and calm countenance helped him in making his ruling. "Being a judge is like being a basketball referee, something happens in front of you, you make the call, some will be good, some won't, but you will make good calls more often," he said. "We had people we can fall back on to help us and safety nets so we can concentrate on what we are doing and make the best decision possible." This courtroom disposition and level-headed nature resulted in O'Bryan never losing an appeal. "I have sat there with families who had lost loved ones, and your heart goes out of them, it has to, they have suffered such a loss," he said. "You have to think about them and what message are we sending to the community- will they learn from it? A big part of being a judge is hopefully to help people to learn through your decision, though that is easier said than done." When O'Bryan first picked up his gavel in the late 1990s, intoxicated driving and domestic violence made up the majority of cases that came through the town court. 30 years later, O'Bryan said it's easily drugs that are heavily plaguing the area. Combined with the power of the internet and social media platforms, substance abuse and addiction has unfortunately gotten a strong foothold in the North Country, and O'Bryan has seen the issue steadily grow over the last decade and a half. "I have always seen drugs to some degree, but to the degree we see or hear about them today, or the strength the drugs are today, it is much different," he noted. "Prior to the internet, early in my career, we didn't see all of this affiliation with outsiders, these mountains protected us. When the internet came about it was a double-edged sword, the mountains no longer protect us. We had to get smarter and have better systems of trying to keep track of activity that runs astray." But it hasn't been all dark and all sad, not by a long shot. O'Bryan has officiated hundreds of weddings, becoming part of the happy memories of so many couples and families. He will sorely miss his court work family, of which the thousands of small shared moments became part of a career highlight. The many nights of waking up to a ringing phone and making his way down Chilson Hill long before the sun rose when duty called were just part of a job he loved. And after 30 years, one of the longest running town judges is walking away with the absolute and proven certainty that there are far, far more good people in the world than bad. "It's been a great career, hopefully I left it better off than it was when I picked it up," O'Bryan reflected. "I'd like to be remembered for fairness, being balanced, and someone who cared about others and treated people fairly. I also hope people realize this is a wonderful and giving community to be a part of. Not many get to live in this kind of environment, and it's only going to get better." The community is cordially invited to Judge Jim O'Bryan's Retirement Party on Sunday, March 23. The celebration will last from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus at 103 Montcalm Street.

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Ti's Judge O'Bryan retires after 30 years

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