Justice Callow was tough, but caring
During his first run for Waukesha city attorney in the 1950s, William G. Callow attracted attention by riding slowly around town in a car festooned with signs that said, “Callow Cares About People.”
That wasn’t just a slogan, though. It was the way Callow sought to live his life as he raised a family and rose to become a member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Callow died March 6 at AngelsGrace Hospice in Oconomowoc. He was 96.
“He considered his role as judge to be more than just presiding at trials and court hearings,” said his son, Grant Callow. “For that reason, he felt it was important to reach out to the public and let them know what it was like to be a judge and to help them understand the law and how the law worked.”
Callow won his seat on the Supreme Court in 1977, was re-elected in 1987 and retired from the court in 1992.
Patience Roggensack, the court’s chief justice, saluted Callow as “a lawyer and judge whose passion for the law was driven by a superior intellect and strong conviction.”
“Generous and warm, he was known to be feisty and intense when a question of law needed answering,” Roggensack said in a statement. “I knew a man of honor and commitment who never lost his sense of humor in the gravest of situations.”
Callow was born in Waukesha, and after the death of his mother, lived for a time with his maternal grandparents, aunts and uncles in Platteville.
After his father remarried, Callow returned to Waukesha. A 1943 graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, he served as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps during World War II. He later served stateside in the military during the Korean War.
By then, he was already an attorney after graduating from UW Law School in 1948.
He met his future wife, Jean Zilavy, at a local Red Cross in Waukesha. They were married 68 years and raised three children.
According to his biography in the Wisconsin Court System, Callow served as city attorney in Waukesha from 1952 to 1960 and served 16 years as a judge for Waukesha County Circuit Court, winning three elections between 1961 and 1973.
“As a trial judge, Callow pioneered group therapy for drunk drivers and victim/offender reconciliation in property crime,” his biography said.
He also conducted hundreds of lectures at Wisconsin high schools across the state, explaining the ramifications of the law in such areas as teenage marriage and drunken driving. Later, he wrote a pamphlet, “You and the Law.”
His son recalled during Christmastime, Callow would distribute small gift bags to those locked up in the local jail.
“He didn’t like sentencing people, but he believed in the rule of law,” his son said.