On December 27, 2024, after five decades in the legal profession and 11 years on the bench, the Honorable Judge Jack W. Marr stood in the doorway to his office on North Bridge Street in Victoria and peered inside. His eyes scanned the room, and his gaze settled on a painting of a yellow dog.
“That was my first Labrador Retriever,” he said. “That’s Blondie. When we first moved here, we bought her.”
The room was clearly in the process of being cleared out. The desk remained, but the chairs were gone. A photograph of Downtown Victoria had been taken off the wall. A certificate congratulating him on 50 years of practicing law had been packed away. Years of personal and professional memories were being placed in boxes, ready to move out.
He had spent the last couple of hours talking about the system he trusts and believes in. He told stories from his long career and spoke of how he agrees with the law that requires district judges to retire at a certain age – his age. In Just a few days, on January 1, 2025, Judge Jack W. Marr would be officially retired.
He believes that what jurors do is sacred, that court reporters have the hardest job in the courtroom, and that the decision to run for District Judge was the best decision of his life, aside from the decision to marry his wife, Sharon.
The road to the bench was a winding one for Judge Marr. He didn’t always see himself as a future judge. He attended college at Texas Tech and originally planned to go into banking and finance.
“My dad did not have a college education,” he said. “Nor did my mom. My dad was an independent businessman, and his goal was always for his sons to go to college.”
Marr and his only sibling did go to college. In 1974, Marr was licensed to practice law, and in 1975 he received an offer to practice in Victoria.
“In September 1975, my wife and I, and our six-month-old son, who is now the Sheriff of Victoria County, moved here, and that’s the rest of the history.”
Eventually, Marr found his comfort zone in family law, and he practiced in Victoria and the surrounding areas, as he and Sharon raised their two sons, building a life in the area. He didn’t really plan on ever running for a judicial position.
In 2011, his former law partner and sitting judge at the time, Judge Joseph P. “Pat” Kelly decided he was not going to seek another term and urged Marr to run for the position.
“He said ‘I’m not going to run again. You need to get busy,’” said Marr. “And I said, ‘What are you talking about?”
He did decide to run, though, and in 2013 he took office as the judge for the 24th District Court in Texas. The district includes Jackson, Calhoun, DeWitt, Refugio, Victoria and Goliad Counties. Over the next 11 years, Marr would oversee thousands of cases of all kinds – everything from divorces and child custody to major civil lawsuits, and criminal matters like assaults and murders.
Jack W. Marr
After he took the bench, Marr never faced another opponent in any election, which he believes is one indicator that the voters were happy with the job he did.
When asked what surprised him most on the bench, he grinned and said “Nothing,” because after 35 years in practice he had seen just about everything – something he refers to as “having all the corners knocked off” before taking the helm in the courtroom.
Marr still lives in Victoria with his wife Sharon, and both of their sons are grown and have careers of their own. While he does have some remaining professional responsibilities as a retired judge, he said he plans to do more of the things he loves, like duck hunting, fishing, and taking road trips with Sharon.
