Bill Griesbach
When some men are invited to become a part of the Knights of Columbus, they are approached out of the blue. It was not quite so with Bill. While it was Roger Shaha that finally got him to fill out a Form 100, Bill has also heard a lot about the Knights from Dan McLaughlin over the years. He also knew the lives of service that Mike Paoletti and Dave Whitton and others were living. He observed friendliness and the effects of their service to the community and he knew that the Knights had something to do with that.

Bill comes from a family of twelve, and lived in Cedarburg until he was twelve when the family moved to Brookfield. As his father taught Philosophy at Marquette University, Bill did his undergraduate work and attended Law School there as well. After graduation he clerked for the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Madison and also worked in Chicago at the Court of Appeals. Having had enough of Chicago, he came to Green Bay on a job-related move in 1982. After some time at a local firm he took a job in the Brown County District Attorney's Office and in November of 1995 he was appointed Judge.

While he appreciates the fact that he can usually manage to work an eight hour day and spend appropriate time with his family, some weeks may bring as many as sixty or seventy cases, many involving traffic or misdemeanors, and he needs to deal with a lot of people in a short time. Wednesdays and Thursdays are usually trial days. A temptation for many in the legal profession is to look only at the bad side of humanity, and Bill believes he has seen people at their lowest but also at their heights. He tells stories of Police, Social Workers and Foster Parents who have gone to great lengths to show kindness and charity, and he notes that "nine times out of ten, maybe ten times out of ten there is a deep religious faith that motivates them." In his work he believes he has seen "more weakness than evil," evidence of what Chesterton believed was 'the Fall of Man.' While the Christian view of crime might suggest a theme of sin deserving consequences, he has seen a more therapeutic view in our justice system--one suggesting rehabilitation.

Bill believes he has been pretty successful at trying not to bring the office home with him, certainly more so than while at the DA's Office. He has learned that there is a certain value in occasionally second-guessing his decisions. He's also learned to appreciate some of the simple pleasures of life, such as reading, spending time in the park and going out for ice cream. He gets some exercise by riding his bike to work occasionally and would like to play tennis more. Bill and his wife, Joanne, have been married for about twenty-three years now and have four girls. Joanne, who is from Texas, teaches religion at Notre Dame Academy on the Sophomore and Junior level. Bill enjoys his work and is looking ahead to running for Judge again in 2002, hoping that the citizens of Brown County will also recognize the gifts which he and his family bring to Council 10243.

January 2000