Robert Morton Duncan

Robert Morton Duncan (August 24, 1927 – November 2, 2012) was a United States federal judge.

Born in Urbana, Ohio, Duncan received a B.S. from Ohio State University in 1948 and a J.D. from Ohio State University College of Law in 1952.

Duncan served in the United States Army in Korea 1952 to 1956.

He was an attorney examiner for the Ohio Bureau of Workmen's Compensation from 1959 to 1960, and a city prosecutor for Columbus, Ohio from 1960 to 1963. He was a chief counsel to the state attorney general of Ohio from 1963 to 1966. He was a judge on the Franklin County, Ohio Municipal Court from 1966 to 1968. He was a Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court from 1968 to 1971.

In 1971, President Richard M. Nixon appointed Duncan to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF), where he served until 1974. On May 1, 1974, President Nixon nominated Duncan to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, vacated by Carl Andrew Weinman. Duncan was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 13, 1974, and received his commission on June 20, 1974. He resigned on April 15, 1985. He joined Jones Day Reavis & Pogue.

Robert Morton Duncan was the first African-American elected to judicial office in Franklin County, Ohio, the first to serve on the Ohio Supreme Court, the first to serve on the U.S. Court of Military Appeals, and the first appointed to the federal bench in Ohio.

Duncan married his wife Shirley in 1955. They have three children.