HERMAN D. MICHELS

MICHELS--Herman D., was born in Weehawken, New Jersey, on October 16, 1927, to Herman C. and Grace E. Michels. The family moved to Teaneck, New Jersey, and the Judge graduated from Teaneck High School in June of 1945 and joined the United States Navy. He completed basic training at Camp Perry in Williamsburg, Virginia, and was assigned to the Admiral's staff aboard the heavy cruiser U.S.S. Fall River based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Judge was honorably discharged from the Navy in July of 1946 and graduated from Muhlenberg College (A.B.) in 1950 and from Rutgers Law School (LL.B.) in 1953. While attending Rutgers Law School, he was a member of the Rutgers Law Review and was awarded the Milton M. Unger Memorial Award and the Municipal Corporation Law Prize. On graduation from the law school, he served as law clerk to the Honorable G. Dixon Speakman, Essex County Assignment Judge, until December 31, 1953. From January 1, 1954, he practiced law as an associate, and then from January 1, 1963, as a partner in the law firm of Toner, Crowley, Wolper & Vanderbilt and later Toner, Vanderbilt, Michels & Light in Newark, New Jersey. Thereafter, he practiced as senior partner in the law firm of Michels & Schwartz in Newark, New Jersey. Judge Michels was admitted to the practice of law in New Jersey as an attorney in 1953 and as counselor-at-law in 1955. He is also admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey (1953), the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1956), and the United States Supreme Court in 1956. He was appointed to the Superior Court of New Jersey on February 1, 1972, by Governor William G. Cahill and was assigned to the Law Division, Superior Court, in Newark, New Jersey. He was then assigned to the Appellate Division on April 11, 1974, and reappointed as a Superior Court Judge on February 1, 1979 by Governor Brendan T. Byrne. He was appointed as Presiding Judge of the Appellate Division on September 8, 1980, and then as the Presiding Judge for Administration of the Appellate Division on April 3, 1985. He attended and completed the Appellate Judges Seminar conducted by the Institute of Judicial Administration for New York University School of Law and the Management Seminar conducted by the Institute of the National Center for State Courts. He also served as Chairman and lecturer of the New Jersey Judicial College and lecturer for the Institute for Continuing Legal Education. Judge Michels was a member of the Essex County, New Jersey and American Bar Associations, the American Judicature Society, the Maritime Law Association of the United States, and was a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He was a former President and member of the Executive Committee of the Council of Chief Judges of State Courts of Appeal. He served as Chair of the Public Access Subcommittee of the New Jersey Judiciary Information Systems Policy Committee (1996), the New Jersey Ethics Commission (Michels Commission) (1993), the Supreme Court Committee on Court Reporting (1991) and the New Jersey Supreme Court Judiciary Drug Abuse Study Group (1987). Judge Michels was currently counsel to the Gibbons law firm in Newark, working with the Firm's Appellate and Alternative Dispute Resolution practice groups. He served as an arbitrator, mediator and special discovery master. He attended and completed the mediation for professionals course conducted by the Center for Dispute Settlement in Washington D.C. and the advanced arbitration course conducted by the American Arbitration Association in New York, New York. He is a panel member of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution's New Jersey Panel of Distinguished Neutrals, the American Arbitration Association, and the ICC International Court of Arbitration (North America). He was certified by the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey as an arbitrator and mediator. He had served as an arbitrator and/or mediator in over 400 cases in the past 13 years. These included construction, contract, commercial insurance, reinsurance, employment, legal and medical malpractice, personal injury, corporate and partnership dissolutions and environment damage cases. He also served as an arbitrator in an international construction matter administered by the Singapore International Arbitration Association and as a court-appointed special discovery master in major environmental insurance coverage, partnership, business and insurance fraud matters. Judge Michels was an avid hunter, tennis player and gardener. He was a member of the Coral Beach and Tennis Club in Paget, Bermuda, and the Amwell Valley Conservancy in Amwell, New Jersey. He was a Vestryman and Junior and Senior Warden at Christ Church, Short Hills. He was a member of the Short Hills Club, serving on the Board of Governors, and as Vice President and General Counsel. He is survived by his wife, Ann (nee Harrison), of 55 years, and five children: Sarah of New York City; Stephen and his wife, Tracy, of Kirkland, Washington; Martha and her husband, Dr. Michael Levy, of Las Vegas, Nevada; Linda and her husband, Richard Carchia, of Short Hills, New Jersey, Christian, of Voorhees, New Jersey and 10 grandchildren. He is also survived by his brother, David, of New Milford, New Jersey. He was predeceased by his father and mother and a brother, Warren. The funeral service will be held at 11:00am on Saturday, January 8, 2011 at Christ Church, 66 Highland Avenue, Short Hills, New Jersey. Services under the direction of Bradley Smith & Smith Funeral Home, 415 Morris Ave, Springfield, NJ. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Overlook Hospital Foundation at 36 Upper Overlook Road, P.O. Box 220, Summit, New Jersey 07902, or Christ Church, 66 Highland Avenue, Short Hills, New Jersey 07078. For further information or to send the family a message of condolence, please go to: bradleyfuneralhomes.com