Oliver Wendell Holmes (Jr.)

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was born in Boston, Massachusetts. During his senior year of college, at the start of the Civil War, Holmes enlisted in the fourth battalion, Massachusetts militia, eventually rising from lieutenant to captain. After the war, Holmes studied law at Harvard and practiced it in Boston for 15 years. He became a professor at Harvard in 1882, and that same year, he joined the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. In 1902, Holmes was appointed to a seat in the U.S. Supreme Court by President Theodore Roosevelt. During his 30-year service, Holmes was known for his concise, quotable opinions. He remains one of the most frequently cited U.S. Supreme Court Justices.