A RESOLUTION

IN RECOGNITION OF THE HONORABLE MICHAEL L. KARPF

CHIEF JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT OF CHATHAM COUNTY, GEORGIA

Upon the occasion of the retirement of Honorable Michael L. Karpf to become a Senior Superior

Court Judge and in recognition of his service to the County and State as a Judge of the Recorder’s Court,

State Court and Superior Court of Chatham County, and as Chief Judge for the past six years, the

following resolution is submitted:

A native son of Savannah, Georgia, Judge Karpf grew up in Sylvan Terrace, received his

education in local public schools, graduating from Savannah High, after which he attended Armstrong

State College. He transferred to and graduated from University of Georgia. He received his Juris Doctor

degree from the University of Georgia Lumpkin School of Law in 1971. He and his late wife Susan

Karpf returned from Athens, Georgia, to become leaders in the Savannah community and to raise their

son Ben, an attorney shortly to become a Chatham County Superior Court judge. It has been and is a

great joy for his father that Ben followed his parents’ model by returning home with his wife Suzanne,

and is raising their young sons, Sammy and Charlie, who, as their grandfather did, attend Charles Ellis

Elementary.

Judge Karpf’s family, his faith, his love of the law and the people of his birthplace have defined

and motivated Judge Karpf his entire life.

After practicing law for eight years, attorney Karpf was appointed to the Recorder’s Court bench

where he established a reputation for his high ethical standards and strict adherence to the law. He

demonstrated the same as a Judge and Chief Judge of the State Court to which he was elected in 1988.

In July, 1993, Governor Zell Miller appointed Judge Karpf to the Superior Court of Chatham

County to fill the seat vacated by Chief Judge Frank S. Cheatham, Jr. He brought to the Superior Court

his formidable work ethic and his growing expertise in the area of court technology to enhance

expeditious resolutions of cases. His leadership qualities led to statewide roles as the 1 st District

Administrative Judge and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of Superior Court

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Judges and of the Judicial Counsel of Georgia. He served as Administrative Judge for the Eastern Judicial

Circuit while Judge Perry Brannen Jr. was Chief Judge.

Judge Karpf has presided over thousands of cases including such high profile cases as the death

penalty case against Bernard Green, the suit involving the disaffiliation of Christ Church, Anglican from

the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia; he ruled in rhyme in a case involving the term “tickle gizzard,”

famously held in contempt a physician who defied his order barring potential jurors from reading local

newspapers, and jailed a gallery member whose cell phone continued to ring after several admonitions to

quiet all cell phones. Recently, he penned a widely publicized opinion granting an attorney a continuance

to attend a particularly significant Rose Bowl game.

Since January 2012, he has been our Chief Judge of the Eastern Judicial Circuit. Recognizing

that criminal cases involving serious and/or violent felonies were often languishing due to the volume of

cases assigned each of the six judges, Judge Karpf led a study of best practices to shorten the time from

arrest to final disposition. He ensured that the creation of the Major Crimes Division had the commitment

of all participants and as a result, the transition went remarkably well, with the Division resolving over

500 serious violent felonies in its first two years while he and Judge Tim Walmsley presided.

Over the past fifteen years, Judge Karpf has devoted many hours of advocacy for the promised

construction of a new trial courts building and renovation of the existing J. Tom Coleman Judicial

Building. He has combined diplomacy, grace and fierce determination to overcome the delays, funding

issues and political winds to achieve the dream — not to be realized during his tenure — of a courthouse

designed to convey to all who enter the dignity and solemnity of court proceedings. He has served as

Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Chatham County Law Library and the Alternative Dispute

Resolution Committee as well as other statutorily required commitments. During his tenure, he has re-

engaged with the Juvenile Court proactively and productively.

He has also served the community as a former member of the Metropolitan Planning

Commission, the City of Savannah Civil Service Board, the Rotary East Club and as a former President of

the Jewish Educational Alliance. He is the recipient of the JEA Community Service award and most

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recently of the 2018 Judge Frank S. Cheatham Jr. Professionalism Award.

Judge Karpf has consistently tended to every matter with his innate sense of fairness, his

inquisitive nature and his ability to find solutions that elude others. He has become known among judges

who have served with him as an exemplar of thinking creatively, planning strategically and working

toward consensus for the goal of improving the quality of the justice system.

He will be remembered as a thoughtful, patient and fair judge who loved the law and used his dry

wit to lighten tedium and tensions. His fellow judges are grateful for his promotion of collegial

relationship among the judges, the bar, the court staff and constitutional and elected officials. We have all

been the fortunate recipients of his open-mindedness, his tolerance, his intellect, his tutelage and his

decisiveness and his longevity. According to the philosopher Plato, “the true measure of a man is what he

does with power.” Wisely, cogently and modestly, Judge Michael Karpf epitomizes selfless servanthood

to the greater good as well as to the protection of individual liberties and to the cause of justice. We do

well to emulate him and with this resolution honor his life’s work and steadfast legacy of devotion to the

rule of law and the Constitutions of our Country and State.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, THAT THIS RESOLUTION IS HEREBY ADOPTED

AND SHALL BE SPREAD UPON THE MINUTES OF THE COURT ON THIS SECOND DAY OF

JANUARY, 2019.

_______________________________________
PENNY HAAS FREESEMANN, CHIEF JUDGE
SUPERIOR COURT OF CHATHAM COUNTY
EASTERN JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
STATE OF GEORGIA