At 70, Hennepin County Judge Robert Small moves on to his next job

Just four months shy of a 50-year anniversary in public service, Hennepin County Judge Robert Small packed his boxes last week and moved out of his 16th-floor chambers in the downtown Minneapolis courthouse.

On Nov. 9, Small hit 70 — the mandatory retirement age for Minnesota judges. He's taking Thanksgiving weekend off before starting his new job Monday as executive director of the Minnesota Association of County Attorneys. He will spend the next month learning the job with his predecessor, John Kingrey, who departs in January.

As the head of the organization, which is funded through state and county grants, Small will advocate for issues and funding at the Legislature and coordinate continuing education programs for the 87 county attorneys and their staffs. One big topic awaiting him: a statewide discussion on whether to allow cameras in the state's courtrooms.

"I do think this is still public service," Small said of the new job. "It's working for people in public service."

He will help define and deliver the policy position of the state's prosecutors. During his job interview, Small said he was asked whether he could publicly support an issue that he personally disagreed with. Not to worry, Small said he told the panel of questioners, he's been doing it for years as a judge — following the law, not his personal views.

He fought in the jungle in Vietnam, losing his best friend in the Tet Offensive. He has said his time as a U.S. Marine shaped him into a disciplined adult. He's got a Semper Fi sticker in his office and has had a career that's been about the mission — getting the job done and not promoting himself and getting his face on television.

After the Marines, he finished college, then law school, eventually working as an assistant U.S. attorney, rising to the key post of first assistant to the presidentially appointed U.S. attorney. Just shy of nine years ago, Small took the Hennepin County post.

Since then he's been a reliable courthouse presence, arriving most days at 7 a.m. and taking his first break before most lawyers and judges are in the building. He thinks of himself as a workhorse, who eagerly volunteered to pick up quotidian cases when there was work to be done.

"My biggest contribution was I did the day-to-day work on the meat-and-potatoes cases," Small said, declining to point out any marquee cases.

He kept logs of his cases and their central issues, trying to be consistent in his rulings. He said he will miss the courthouse collegiality, but not sentencing defendants, which, he said, "no question is the hardest thing a judge does. There are so many things you don't know about an individual. … I struggle over sentencing — every single one."

It rarely showed. Small always seems to have pep in his step, a quick smile and an enthusiastic greeting.

Patting a stack of papers on his desk, Small said he's got biographies of his new colleagues in the county attorneys association's St. Paul office. "I've been studying," he said.

Small and his wife, Renee, still live in the first "starter" house they bought in Richfield. And the bus driver's son values work.

"I know I've got to keep active," he said. "I don't play golf, and we don't travel. I really didn't want to retire."