Barbour appoints Fair

Gov. Haley Barbour has appointed Chancellor Gene Fair of Hattiesburg as a justice on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. Fair replaces Justice William Myers, who retired from the bench Dec. 31.

Fair will hold the District 5, Position 1 seat on the state’s second highest court. The district includes Forrest, George, Greene, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Lamar, Pearl River, Perry, Stone and parts of Wayne counties.

Fair has served as chancellor for the 10th District Chancery Court since January 2007. Previously, he was in private practice in Hattiesburg. He also served as a lieutenant commander in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps in the U.S. Naval Reserve.

Fair served as vice chairman of the Mississippi Ethics Commission from 1984 to 2004, on the Judicial Nominating Committee under Gov. William Winter and on the Mississippi Supreme Court Committee on Technology. He also was board attorney for the Pat Harrison Waterway District from 1988 to 1992.

An Eagle Scout who was raised in Louisville, Fair earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a law degree from the University of Mississippi.

Fair and his wife, Estella Galloway, have two children, Melissa and Julia, and four grandchildren. He is a trustee, elder and Sunday School teacher at Westminster Presbyterian Church of Hattiesburg.