PORTLAND — A public celebration of former congressman and longtime federal appeals court Judge Frank M. Coffin will take place Saturday, May 8, at 1:30 p.m. at the University of Southern Maine Abromson Community Education Center on Bedford Street.
Coffin, a resident of South Portland, died last December at 90. He was one of the few Americans to serve in all three branches of the federal government.
Coffin served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit from 1965 to 2006, and was the court’s chief judge from 1972 to 1983.
The Lewiston native was credited with his friend, the late Sen. Edmund Muskie, with rebuilding the Maine Democratic Party in the 1950s. Coffin served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Maine’s 2nd District, and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1960.
In the early 1960s he was a deputy director of the U.S. Agency for International Development and a U.S. representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.
Coffin was the author of four books and the recipient of several honors for his commitment to making legal services accessible to everyone, regardless of income.
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