Roger L. Dell, Associate Justice 1953; Chief Justice 1953-1962

Roger L. Dell served just six months as an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court before being appointed Chief Justice on July 16th, 1953.

Born July 19, 1897, in the village of Bird Island, Minnesota, Roger Le Roy Dell attended Shakopee public schools, graduating from high school in 1916. After high school he skipped any pre-law education and enrolled directly into the Saint Paul College of Law (now Mitchell Hamline School of Law), graduating in 1920.

Dell was admitted to practice in Minnesota on October 7, of that same year and practiced law continuously in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, from 1920, until January 12, 1953 when he was appointed Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court by Governor Elmer Anderson. He was appointed Chief Justice just six months later on July 16, 1953, and was elected to the seat in 1954, and again in 1960, serving until January 24, 1962. Dell lived in Fergus Falls after he left the court until his death in 1966.

He was married twice. They were respectively, Marjorie Webber Dell, married in 1923 and died August 18, 1934, and Agnes Collier Dell, married in 1942 and died December 17, 1964. 

You may read more about the life and work of Chief Justice Dell in his memorial, found in the Obituaries page to the left, and in the Minnesota Supreme Court Historical Society's book: Testimony: Remembering Minnesota's Supreme Court Justices, which is the source of this brief biography.