Thomas O. Streissguth, Associate Justice 1942 and 1944

In 1942 and 1944, Thomas O. Streissguth served as Justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court.  

Born on February 27, 1889, in Arlington, Minnesota, Thomas Otto Streissguth spent his early years in Arlington where he attended public schools. Upon his graduation from high school, Streissguth attended Carleton College for two years and then the University of Minnesota, where he received his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1910. 

After law school, Streissguth worked for four years as a legal researcher and writer for West Publishing in Saint Paul and the Callaghan Law Book Company in Chicago. In 1914, he entered the practice of law, partnering briefly with the Honorable Frank Clague in Redwood Falls, MN before opening his own law office in Gaylord, MN.  In 1918, he married Gladys Burnside and they had a daughter and a son.

In 1923, Streissguth moved to New Ulm, Minnesota where he began his career of public service, serving as district attorney for Brown County, Minnesota from 1924 to 1942. Streissguth then served on the Minnesota Supreme Court briefly for three months in 1942 and again for one year in 1944. Streissguth died of a heart attack in New Ulm, Minnesota in 1950.