Fred M. Raymond. May18, 1925, Fred M. Raymond, who had made a splendid record of service as a member of the bar of Kent county, took the oath of office as judge of the United States district court of the western district of Michigan, and those who knew the man and his achievement recognized this as consistent preferment given to an able lawyer and loyal citizen of Grand Rapids. From an editorial that appeared in a Grand Rapids daily newspaper of May 12, 1925, are taken the following extracts: "President Coolidge has untangled the knotty problem precipitated upon him by the creation of another United States district judgeship in western Michigan. Passing over candidates for whom formidable endorsements were piled up, and disregarding all of the political recommendations that came to him from this area, he has named Attorney Fred M. Raymond of Grand Rapids. Judge Raymond has had no ‘public character’ heretofore. This is his first large public trust. Therefore he is less well known than most of those over whom he has won the high distinction. But his intimate associates at the bar uniformly testify to his splendid legal attainments, to his capacity for hard and intelligent work, and to the sturdiness of his character. He is clean, independent and able. He has a background of experience, intellect and courage. We can wish for him – and his constituency – no finer destiny that to justify his association with a bench that always has been eloquently creditable to justice and to the Federal judiciary." Judge Raymond was born at Marne, Ottawa county, Michigan, Mach 22, 1876, and is a son of Joseph and Elizabeth (McLennan) Raymond, both of whom were born and reared in the province of Ontario, Canada. Andrew McLennan, maternal grandfather of Judge Raymond, was born in Scotland and upon coming to America he established his residence at Port Rowan, Ontario, on the northern shore of Lake Erie, he having been long and prominently identified with navigation of the Great Lakes, as the owner and operator of a number of vessels. Joseph Raymond served as a lieutenant in the Canadian army during the now historic Fenian invasion, in the sixties, and it was in the year 1869 that he came to Ottawa county, Michigan, and established his residence at Marne, where he was for many years engaged in the mercantile business and where he was an honored and influential citizen of his community. He and his wife are both now deceased. The early education of Judge Raymond was obtained in the public schools of his native village, and thereafter he attended the Central high school in Grand Rapids. He was for three years a successful teacher in the district schools of Ottawa county, and like many other ambitious young men, he used the pedagogic profession as a means to an end, his earnings having contributed to defraying his expenses while he was a student in the law department of the University of Michigan, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1899, his admission to the bar of his native state having been virtually a concomitant of his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He forthwith engaged in the work of his profession in Grand Rapids, where he became associated with the law firm of Hatch & Wilson. From 1906 to 1910 he here maintained a professional partnership with Judge Reuben Hatch, and in the latter year James T. McAllister was admitted to the partnership, the firm name thereafter having been Hatch, McAllister & Raymond until 1922, when Mr. Raymond formed a law partnership with Judge Harry D. Jewell, Dean S. Face and William H. Messinger having later become members of the firm. The proved accuracy and solidity of Judge Raymond’s knowledge of the involved science of jurisprudence, as demonstrated in his notably successful stewardship in the work of his profession, marked him as eligible for the judicial honors that were given him when he was appointed to his present distinguished office on the bench of the United States district court. Judge Raymond is a valued and honored member of the Grand Rapids Bar Association, of which he was the president in 1922, and he has membership also in the Michigan State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. His political alliance is given unreservedly to the Republican party, and he and his wife are zealous members of the Park Congregational Church in Grand Rapids, of which he has served as a trustee and in which Mrs. Raymond was superintendent of the primary department of the Sunday school. Judge Raymond is affiliated with the various York and Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, his basic or ancient-craft membership being in York Lodge, No. 410, A. F. & A. M., his Scottish Rite affiliations being with DeWitt Clinton Consistory, in Grand Rapids, and he being here a noble of Saladin Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the Masonic Past Masters Association, and in addition to being a past master of Berlin Lodge, No. 248, F. & A. M., at Marne, Ottawa county, he is a past patron of Peninsular Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, the Grand Rapids organization being the largest chapter in the world at the time he held the office of patron. The Judge was president of the board of education in his native village of Marne at the time the high school building was erected there. He is a member of the Kiwanis Club in his home city, and of the Spring Lake Country Club, in Ottawa county, he and his family having their attractive summer cottage at Highland Park, on Lake Michigan. In the year 1902 was solemnized the marriage of Judge Raymond to Miss Mabel Kenworthy, of Oskaloosa, Iowa, who previously had been graduated in the Treat Kindergarten School in Grand Rapids. Mrs. Raymond is a prominent figure in the civic and cultural circles not only of her home city but also the state of Michigan. She was one of the early and enthusiastic workers in the Parent-Teacher Club of Grand Rapids, and has been a leader in the parent-teacher work in Michigan, as is indicated by the fact that she is now president of the Michigan branch of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Michigan State Federation of Women’s Clubs, has served as president of the Grand Rapids Woman’s Club, and has been active in the work of the local Ladies’ Literary Club and in the affairs of the Peninsular Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. Judge and Mrs. Raymond have two children, Elizabeth and Russell, and it may be noted that in each of the past five generations of the Raymond family there had bee a daughter bearing the name of Elizabeth.