Charles Gelbert Neese

Charles Gelbert Neese (October 3, 1916 – October 22, 1989) was a United States federal judge.

Born in Paris, Tennessee, Neese received an LL.B. from Cumberland University in 1936 and read law to enter the bar in 1938. He was in private practice in Paris from 1938 to 1941, serving as a field secretary of U.S. Rep. Herron Pearson from Tennessee from 1940 to 1941, and as an executive assistant and general counsel to the governor for unemployment compensation appeals and traffic and transportation from 1941 to 1944. He was a U.S. Naval Reserve Commander towards the end of World War II, in 1945. He returned to private practice in Paris in 1945. The following year, he became a public relations representative for the Tennessee-Kentucky Chain Store Councils in Paris, serving until 1947. He was a campaign manager in Estes Kefauver's run for U.S. Senate in 1948 and again in 1954, after which he returned to private practice in Paris. From 1949 to 1951, he was an administrative assistant to Kefauver, then again returned to private practice and continued in that role until 1961. He performed political consultancy work in 1952.

On November 20, 1961, Neese received a recess appointment from President John F. Kennedy to a new seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee created by 75 Stat. 80. Formally nominated on January 15, 1962, he was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 7 of that year and received his commission on February 17. He assumed senior status on August 31, 1982, and served in that capacity until his death, in Nashville, in 1989.

Sources

• Charles Gelbert Neese at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.