JOHN P. COLTON, JR. ’56

“Christian Brothers High School helped me get where I am today,” says the Honorable John Colton ’56, who has devoted much of his life to the legal profession. “There is no telling where I would be if I hadn’t had that experience.”

Proud of his Irish ancestry, he tells how his family crossed the Atlantic in the early nineteenth century to escape the potato famine decimating Ireland. They made their way to Memphis in 1842, holding menial jobs over the years, until his father proved to be a good boxer and his winnings paid his way through law school. John P. Colton, Sr. served as a Shelby County Criminal Court judge here from 1967 to 1980.

Born in 1938, the younger Colton followed in his father’s footsteps, but took a different path. He grew up in North Memphis and attended Little Flower School. He then enrolled at CHBS, back when the school shared the same campus on East Parkway as Christian Brothers College.

“I obtained a wonderful education there,” he says, “because the Brothers would teach at the college and then walk over and teach at the high school. Quite a bit was expected of us, and there was never any disruption in our classes. You were there to learn, and you always knew exactly where you stood with the Brothers.”

There he encountered another vital element of a CBHS education. “That was my first encounter with spirituality,” Colton says. “My family went to church, but you did that because you were supposed to. At school, we began every class with a prayer, and that always impressed me.”

Working so closely with the Brothers and lay teachers, Colton remembers, “That meant not only knowing the value of doing the right thing, but also learning right from wrong, so you would make those decisions for yourself. It was all about personal responsibility.”

Some of that awareness came later. He admits, “I had no idea I was getting such a good education at CBHS until I left for college.” Colton was accepted to the University of Tennessee and remembers, “I had to take Latin but really didn’t have to study because I had learned that at CBHS. Then I took calculus, and I had already learned that at Christian Brothers, too.”

After one year in Knoxville, he returned home, where he earned a bachelor’s degree at Memphis State University, with a double major in history and biology. In 1964, Colton obtained his law degree by attending night school at the old Southern Law College.

What followed was a lifetime of law. He served as a deputy criminal court clerk and assistant public defender for Shelby County, before joining the law firm of Colton & Blancett. In 1990, he was elected a Shelby County Criminal Court judge, a position he held for 20 years. He also held memberships in the Shelby County and Tennessee bar associations, American Trial Lawyers Association, American Judicature Society, and other legal organizations.

But his days have never been entirely spent in the courtroom. In 1975, he became the first (and cofounding) member of the Memphis Runners Track Club, an organization very active today, and he has remained involved with the Memphis YMCA since 1944, when he was only 6. In fact, he is the oldest continuing member. Every week, he and his wife, Barbara, drive from their home in Hernando, Mississippi, to take part in activities at the Downtown Y.

“I’m thankful for every day that I wake up and see the beauty in the world around us,” he says. To help others gain that same measure of appreciation, Colton and his wife established the Class of 1956 Honorary Fund at CBHS to honor his classmates and fellow Brothers’ Boys. “It’s mainly set up to help students who might not otherwise be able to go to school,” he says. “I wanted to be of service to other people in need. It means a great deal to me to be able to do that.”

The CBHS Legacy Society is a way for Christian Brothers High School to recognize and honor those whose future gifts will ensure that Catholic education, rooted in the Lasallian mission, is available for generations. Current members include alumni, parents, and friends of CBHS, living or deceased, who have demonstrated a commitment to the school’s future by making provisions in their estate planning.