{{Short description|American judge (1883–1963)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Michael Fansler | honorific_suffix = | image = | alt = | caption = | office = Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court | term_start = January 4, 1933 | term_end = January 1, 1945 | nominator = | appointer = | predecessor = Julius Travis | successor = Oliver Starr }}
'''Michael Louis Fansler''' (July 4, 1883 – July 26, 1963) was an American lawyer, football player, politician, and judge who served as a justice of the Indiana Supreme Court from January 4, 1933, to January 1, 1945.<ref name="Ind">Minde C. Browning, Richard Humphrey, and Bruce Kleinschmidt, "[https://www.in.gov/judiciary/supreme/files/browning.pdf Biographical Sketches of Indiana Supreme Court Justices]", ''Indiana Law Review'', Vol. 30, No. 1 (1997), section reproduced in [https://www.in.gov/judiciary/supreme/files/justice-bios.pdf#page=74 Indiana Courts Justice Biographies page].</ref>
==Biography== ===Early life, education, and career=== Fansler was born in Logansport, Indiana to Michael David and Johanna Fansler (née Mulcahy). Michael David Fansler (born 1857 in Wyandotte County, Ohio), the son of one of Logansport's early physicians, was of Scots-Irish, German, and French descent. M.D. Fansler was a prominent local lawyer, serving for most of his career as a prosecutor. Johanna "Nannie" Fansler was the daughter of an Irish immigrant.<ref name="Ind"/><ref name="Powell">{{cite book |last1=Powell |first1=Jehu Z. |title=History of Cass County Indiana : From its earliest settlement to the present time : with biographical sketches and reference to biographies previously compiled |date=1913 |publisher=Lewis Publishing Company |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofcasscou02powe/page/736/mode/2up}}</ref>
Fansler began attending Notre Dame Law School at the University of Notre Dame (in Notre Dame, Indiana) in 1901. He was a member of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team. Known to his teammates as "Big Mike" (he was over six feet tall), he played a variety of positions during his time on the team. He graduated and was admitted to the bar in 1905.<ref name="Ind"/><ref>{{cite book |title=Notre Dame Scholastic Football Pages Volume 38 Issue 13 |date=17 Dec 1904 |pages=218 |url=http://archives.nd.edu/Football/Football-1904s.pdf}}</ref>
Fansler returned to Cass County. From 1906 to 1910, he served as Assistant Prosecuting Attorney of the 29th Judicial Circuit, working under prosecutor George C. Custer. From 1910 to 1914, he served as the Prosecuting Attorney of the 29th Circuit, succeeding Custer. In 1915, Fansler became a partner at the private firm of Rabb, Mahoney, Fansler & Douglass. He remained at the firm until 1932. Fansler helped to organize a liberty loan drive in Cass County during the First World War. Fansler was a Democrat.<ref name="Ind"/><ref name="Powell"/><ref name="Schwarz">{{cite book |last1=Schwarz |first1=J.C. |title=Who's who in Law, Volume 1 |date=1937 |pages=297 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iI8jAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Benjamin%22+%22Willoughby%22+%22Indiana%22+%22Vincennes%22+%22Edith+Getches%22}}</ref>
===Judicial career and later life=== Fansler became a justice of the Indiana Supreme Court in 1933. In 1941, Fansler delivered a speech titled "Some Public Reactions to Procedural Methods" at a meeting of the Indiana State Bar Association. Fansler left the court in 1945, succeeded by Justice Oliver Starr.<ref name="Ind"/><ref>{{cite journal |title=Some Public Reactions to Procedural Methods |url=https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol16/iss3/1/ |journal=16 Indiana Law Journal 277 (1941) |date=February 1941 |volume=16 |issue=3 |publisher=Indiana University Bloomington |last1=Fansler |first1=Michael }}</ref>
Fansler chaired the Indiana Judicial Council from 1951 to 1960.<ref name="Ind"/>
===Personal life and death=== Fansler was a member of the Indiana State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. He was also a member of the Gamma Eta Gamma and an Elk. Moses Lairy, another Indiana Supreme Court Justice (1915–1921), was a friend and mentor to Fansler. Fansler wrote a letter to Governor Paul V. McNutt to thank him for leading the Democrats to a landslide victory in the 1932 elections.<ref name="Schwarz"/><ref name="Book">{{cite book |last1=Ridlen |first1=Julian |title=Justices of the Indiana Supreme Court |date=2010 |publisher=Indiana Historical Society |pages=227–229 |isbn=9780871952882 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_s7ZBAAAQBAJ&q=willard+gemmill+indiana+supreme+court+google+books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Madison |first1=James H. |title=Indiana Through Tradition and Change: A History of the Hoosier State and Its People, 1920-1945 |date=1982 |publisher=Indiana Historical Society |pages=78 |isbn=9780871950437 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9-AlDQAAQBAJ&q=%22Michael+L.+Fansler%22+%22Indiana%22}}</ref>
In 1909, Fansler married Katherine Hall of Peru, Indiana. During the First World War, Katherine Fansler was a member of the Women's Section of the Indiana State Council of Defense, the Indiana branch of the nationwide volunteer organization that helped coordinate Americans resources and industry for the war effort.<ref name="Schwarz"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Carlisle |first1=Anne |title=Report of the Woman's section of the Indiana State council of defense |date=1919 |publisher=Indianapolis, W. B. Burford, contractor for state printing and binding |url=https://archive.org/details/reportofwomansse00indi}}</ref>
Fansler died in Indianapolis in 1963.<ref name="Ind"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box |title=Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court |before=Julius Travis |after=Oliver Starr |years=1933–1945}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fansler, Michael}} Category:1883 births Category:1963 deaths Category:People from Logansport, Indiana Category:Notre Dame Law School alumni Category:Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Category:Justices of the Indiana Supreme Court Category:American judges Category:Indiana Democrats Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:American people of German descent Category:American people of French descent