Noma Gurich - Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice: Woman of Influence
In case you were wondering, 1950s South Bend, Indiana, was not a hotbed of activity for the women’s empowerment movement. South Bend women, generally limited to a handful of career choices acceptable for ladies, tended to become teachers or nurses. Little girls growing up then and there had likely never seen or heard of a woman who was, say, a scientist or a doctor.
What on earth, then, would prompt a young Noma Gurich to reply, when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, “President”? It’s a question that flummoxes her to this day. “I don’t know exactly why I did that. My mother was a teacher. At that point in history, I never had met a woman outside the home that was more educated than a teacher. There were a few people that had nursing backgrounds, but I had never seen anyone who wasn’t a teacher who was a professional woman. I’d never met a lawyer, or a judge,” she says.
Growing up, Gurich was a tomboy and a talented musician. She played clarinet and eventually learned to play various iterations of the saxophone. She was in her school’s marching band, concert band and jazz band, and loved every bit of it. Her school had basketball, but not much more, for female student-athletes. “We played six-on-six and we had a small team. In high school there was just one girls’ basketball team, no varsity or junior varsity, so you basically sat on the bench for two years and then played for two years regardless of your skill or your ability to win. After one year on the bench I thought, ‘Well, this isn’t getting me anywhere,’ so I spent much more time in band.”
Between her junior and senior years of high school, Gurich attended a summer political science program at Indiana State University, where she met the first lawyer she’d ever known—Mr. Matthews, a mentor who would help her decide to go to law school herself. But first, he helped level up her undergraduate plan. “I was so taken with his discussion of law school and political science, and I’d always loved social studies. I loved government and economics my senior year in high school,” she says.
Indiana State offered her an academic scholarship. She still sounds surprised when she tells the story. “Nobody had ever encouraged me, ever, to apply for a scholarship at any college. There was no counseling, no support. I was in the top 10 percent of my high school class, but nobody ever acknowledged that particularly. All of a sudden I had an academic scholarship and my parents figured out that they could help me with room and board, so I ended up going to Indiana State.”
Band continued to play a big role in her life at Indiana State. “My high school band director, who I just worshipped, had gone to Indiana State so people in the music department knew him. He introduced me, and there was one other person from my high school at Indiana State, a year ahead of me. She’d been our drummer.” So armed, Gurich set off for college.
She considered a music major but determined she was a better talker than musician, so instead majored in political science and spent all of her extra time in the band program as a non-major. “I also did Model United Nations. We went to some national conferences, so I had more chances to talk.” She added a speech class to her schedule and impressed her instructor.
Gurich’s first inkling that she might want to be a judge happened in law school, at the University of Oklahoma. She’d been appointed to serve on the Student Superior Court. Her appointment was classic Gurich, a mix of sure intellectual competence and excellent networking. As a work-study student, Gurich found herself employed at the university copy shop, where she met student body president John Bode, whose wife Denise would later serve as Oklahoma’s Corporation Commissioner. When a vacancy appeared on the student court, Bode appointed Gurich, who served for two years.
Noma Gurich plays a long game. Always has. She sets clear goals and then chips away until she achieves them. Sometimes barriers appear in her path, so she reevaluates, regroups and heads in a slightly different direction. She course-corrects and, when she’s determined that a particular action no longer serves its purpose, she moves on to a new tactic.
After law school, Gurich wanted to go into private practice but not many firms would hire women in 1978. “I got hired by a small, family firm and was paid a lot less than the other attorneys,” Gurich says. When she walked into court to try cases, people had never seen a woman attorney. “I was in private practice for 10 years with two firms and had so many great opportunities. I learned to talk to people, to figure things out and that if people realize that they can trust you and depend on you, you create a network.”
Her decade in private practice ended in grand fashion: Republican Governor Henry Bellmon appointed her a judge of the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Court. Democratic Governor David Walters reappointed her for a second term in 1994.
In July 1998, Republican governor Frank Keating appointed Gurich as judge of the District Court for Oklahoma Count. She won a contested election that year, and was then reelected in 2002, 2006 and 2010. While a district judge, Gurich served as the presiding judge of both the 11th and 12th Multi-County Grand Juries (2007–2008 and 2009–2010) by order of the Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Gurich was appointed the State's highest court by Governor Brad Henry in 2010 and assumed office on Feb. 15, 2011. She was appointed to the Court following the death of longtime Justice Marian P. Opala, and is the third woman in state history after Alma Wilson and Yvonne Kauger to be appointed to the Supreme Court. She served as the administrative Presiding Judge of both the Worker's Compensation Court and Oklahoma County District Court and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. No other person has been in the top leadership position at all three courts. Pretty darn good for a little girl from South Bend.
Photos by Erin McGregor, Legislative Service Bureau Photography