Doris Ohlsen Huspeni, Judge, 1984-1998

Judge Huspeni served on the Minnesota Court of Appeals from April 1, 1984 until her retirement in 1998

Doris Ohlsen Huspeni was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on February 19, 1929. She married her husband, Joseph Huspeni, in 1949. They had five children; three were born before she went back to school for her bachelor's degree, one born while completing it and the last child was born during law school. They were married for 64 years until Joseph passed away in 2014. 

Judge Huspeni graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in sociology and received her law degree from William Mitchell College of Law (now Mitchell Hamline School of Law) in 1970. She was the only woman in her year and graduated at the top of her class.

After law school, Judge Huspeni worked for the Public Defender's Office as an appellate criminal defense attorney. In 1973, she took a job as an associate law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. Starting in 1974, she served as a referee on the Hennepin County Family Court bench for six years. She then served for two years on the Hennepin County Municipal Court bench and two years on the Hennepin County District Court bench before she was appointed to a seat on the Minnesota Court of Appeals on April 1, 1984.

Judge Huspeni served on the Court of Appeals for 14 years before retiring in 1998 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. She then served another 15 years as a Senior Judge for the Court of Appeals.

She died on September 11, 2020 at the age of 91.

You may read more about the life and work of Judge Huspeni in the interview linked below, which is the source of this brief biography.