Lindsay Warren: 1924-2016

A memorial service is scheduled Friday, April 15, at 11 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church in Goldsboro. A complete obituary will be provided in the In Memoriam section of the NCBA website when it becomes available.

The consummate lawyer-legislator and citizen lawyer, Warren served four terms in the N.C. Senate in the 1960s. From 1963-69 he chaired the joint Courts Commission that was responsible for implementing sweeping changes to the court system that included the establishment of the state’s District Court and Court of Appeals.

For his efforts, Warren and David M. Britt, his counterpart in the N.C. House of Representatives and a member of the commission, received the NCBA’s highest award, the Judge John J. Parker Award, in 1966. Warren was also a charter member of the NCBA’s General Practice Hall of Fame and the recipient of an NCBA Foundation Endowment Justice Fund.

“Lindsay Warren was a man of impeccable character and a dedicated public servant,” said NCBA President Shelby Benton, who is also from Goldsboro. “He was a mentor and friend to me for more than 30 years.

“He was dedicated to the work of the North Carolina Bar Association and believed strongly in the difference that the NCBA makes to the citizens of North Carolina.”

A native of Washington, N.C., Warren was educated in its public schools through 11th grade. His family then moved to Washington, D.C., when his father, U.S. Rep. Lindsay Carter Warren, was named Comptroller General of the United States.

The junior Warren graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1942 and enrolled in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His undergraduate education was interrupted by service in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II. He enlisted in June 1943 and served 18 months in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific theaters of operation.

Following the war, Warren returned to UNC, where he earned his degree in 1948 and proceeded to the UNC School of Law, from which he graduated in 1951.

Licensed to practice law in North Carolina on Aug. 11, 1951, Warren joined the firm of Langston, Allen and Taylor (now Warren Kerr Walston Taylor and Smith) in Goldsboro. He became a partner in 1954 and practiced there for more than 50 years.

Prior to his first election to the N.C. Senate in 1962, Warren served on the Goldsboro City Board of Education. Following legislative service, he chaired the Governor’s Study Commission on Structure and Organization of Higher Education, served as a member and chair of the America’s Four Hundredth Anniversary Committee, and as a member and chair of the St. Andrews Presbyterian College Board of Trustees.

Warren served as president of the UNC General Alumni Association and the UNC Law Alumni Association, and as a member of the UNC Board of Visitors.

His legislative record included service as chairman of the Senate Courts and Judicial Districts Committee, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, vice chairman of the N.C. Board of Higher Education and member of the N. C. Advisory Budget Commission.

In addition to his NCBA honors, Warren received the UNC Distinguished Alumnus Award, the UNC School of Law Award for Distinction Beyond Professional Excellence, the Christopher Crittenden Memorial Award for Significant Contributions to the Preservation of North Carolina History, and the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Tuscarora Council of Boy Scouts of America.