Friends and family members mourned the loss of former Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Andree Roaf at funeral services Sunday. The 1978 UALR William H. Bowen School of Law graduate was 68.
Services were held at the Grace Episcopal Church in Pine Bluff. Roaf was the mother of four and had a career as a biologist with the National Center for Toxicology Research before attending the Bowen School.
Roaf was the first African-American woman – and only the second female – to serve on the Arkansas Supreme Court. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker appointed her to the bench in 1995 to succeed retiring Justice Steele Hayes. Following her term there, she served as a judge on the Arkansas Court of Appeals until 2006.
Not only was Roaf a distinguished graduate of the Bowen School – second in her class of 83 – she served as an instructor of research, writing, and appellate policy for a year after her graduation. At the time of her death, she was serving as director of the Federal Office of Desegregation Monitoring overseeing cases in Pulaski County.
"Judge Roaf had a well-established career before attending the Bowen School, and she blazed trails for future lawyers and public servants,” said Bowen Dean John DiPippa. “In everything that she did, Judge Roaf embodied the values of professionalism and public service and a burning commitment to justice and equality. Her daughter Phoebe became the second generation of Bowen alumni in the Roaf family when she graduated in 1998. We will certainly miss Judge Roaf and her positive influence on the state’s legal community.”