| Leonard Kruse, who retired from Kitsap County’s Superior Court in 2001, is just one year away from celebrating a significant milestone: his 50th year as an attorney. It’s an impressive accomplishment, but one that Kruse appears to take in stride.
“I plan to retain my active status [with the bar] through 2008,” he said. “Then I plan to go to inactive senior status.”
Kruse retired from the bench in 2001, after 19 years as a Superior Court judge, rather than run for re-election at the age of 67. But he hasn’t been sitting on his laurels since stepping down. In fact, he spent the first two years of his “retirement” working part time at Shiers, Chrey, Cox, DiGiovanni, Zak & Kambich, LLP, the Port Orchard law firm where he was once a senior name partner before he became a judge.
Today Kruse still works occasionally in the legal field. “I do return to court from time to time,” said Kruse. And although Kruse doesn’t consider himself to be privately practicing law, he does do some legal work, such as arbitration and mediation.
In addition to his legal work, Kruse volunteers at an elementary school two times a week. And while Kruse’s retirement may still sound an awful lot like working to some, for him, it’s perfectly balanced.
“I stay as busy as I want to be,” he said. “It’s nice to get up every morning and not have to put on a suit and tie and go to the office or court.”. |
