February 26. On this date in 2011, James Nelson, a judge who served in the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States from 1977 to 1999, died.

 

February 26. On this date in 2011, James Nelson, a judge who served in the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States from 1977 to 1999, died.

James Nelson was born in Los Angeles on May 19, 1927. He joined the Navy in 1945 before graduating High School, attending the graduation in his Navy uniform. He attended Stanford University for officer training but after meeting Dorothy at a YMCA camp he transferred to UCLA in 1946 so he could attend the same school as her. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1950 and married Dorothy, then served in the Navy Reserve.

In 1953 James completed a law degree at Loyola University. He became a Bahá'í in 1954 and the same year he began work as deputy district attorney of Los Angeles County. He served in the position until 1957 when he entered private practice. In 1965 he began working as a Juvenile Court Referee. Also in 1965 he chaired a Bahá'í meeting for the public in Temple City, California, at which the Bahá'í view on human rights was discussed, and he and Dorothy showed slides of the World Center at Big Bear Lake Summer School. In 1967 he began working as Judge Pro Tempore for the Los Angeles Superior Court. Ronald Reagan appointed him as a Judge on the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1968.

In 1972 James chaired a public meeting held by the Bahá'ís of Los Angeles County to commemorate Human Rights Day at which awards were given to individuals in the County who had been of service to mankind. In 1974 James and Dorothy spoke at the International Bahá'í Youth Conference in Hawaii on A New Era in Justice. In 1975 James opened a Bahá'í Family Life Conference held in San Francisco. In 1975 the Nelsons represented the Faith at a World Peace Through Law Conference. In 1977 James was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly.

By 1980 James was Chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly, and in 1980 he served as Presiding Judge of the Los Angeles Municipal Court. In 1982 he participated in the Seventh Bahá'í Studies Conference with Dorothy, delivering a joint talk on the Bahá'í perspective on law, language, and ethics. In 1985 the Nelsons were apart of a Bahá'í delegation to an International Conference on Religious Liberty co-sponsored by the U.S. State Department. In December 1985 James acted as spokesperson at a ceremony at which President Ronald Reagan was presented with The Promise of World Peace, the Universal House of Justice's peace statement.

In 1989 Judge Nelson retired from the Los Angeles Municipal Court, although he occasionally worked as a Superior Court judge up until 1993. By 1990 James was serving as Vice-Chair of the National Assembly. He served on the body until 1999.

James died in the presence of family in 2011 following a family party. He had suffered a stroke a few years earlier.

James' wife Dorothy also had a successful legal career, serving on the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and as Dean of the School of Law at the University of Southern California, and was also a long-serving member of the National Assembly, serving on the body from 1969 to 2009.

They had a daughter, Lorna, and son, Frank.