Laying down the gavel: Bristow retiring after 30 years of county service

With over 11 years as a district judge, 12 years as district attorney and over seven years serving Graham and Newcastle in law enforcement, Stephen Bristow has performed a life of service to Young County. At the end of September, Bristow moves into the next step of his life: retirement.

After receiving his first oath of office in May 2012, Bristow has since served as the 90th Judicial District Judge for Young and Stephens counties. While still serving in capacity as a visiting judge on occasion, his last day in the district judge position will be Saturday, Sept. 30.

“I’ve seen so many people that just continue too long. ...My wife and I love to travel, and we’ve traveled even a lot the last 20 years,” Bristow said. “I want to be able to have a quality of life in traveling and doing things in retirement and... I want to be able to do it now while I feel good and I can still do it.”

The district judge said that his next significant increase in retirement would be when he hits 20 years, which would require him to serve for another nine years. He said on top of that he thinks a new face would be a change for the position.

“It might be time for someone else to come in and look at things a little different,” he said. “I still love what I do, but I will continue to be a visiting judge after I’m done with the presiding judge in Fort Worth when they need someone to step in for vacation or conflicts in other counties around the area.”

Though he has been in Graham for over 50 years, Bristow said he was born in Dallas and raised in Irving until he was 13 and his family moved to Houston for around nine months. It was in the middle of his freshman year in high school in 1971 that he came to Graham, the city he now calls home.

“My mother’s whole family is from Graham. My mother graduated from Graham High School in 1942. …She was the youngest of seven,” he said. “I have lots of kinfolk around here. So that’s why we ended up in Graham.”

Since he was around 14 years old, Bristow said he wanted to be a police officer and that only increased when he was 17.

“I was a senior in high school and on Halloween night of 1974 I had an opportunity to ride with James Queen, who was a former highway patrolman here, and Robert Dial, who’s a retired highway patrolman here,” he said. “I had met James’s wife through a place that I’d worked in high school... and I got to ride with them that night and that even sparked it more that I wanted to be a police officer.”

The district judge said he could not become a police officer until he was 21 years old and college was not on his mind. Three days out of high school, the next step for him was enlisting in the U.S. Army with a guarantee that if he passed the course he would be a military police officer.

“I joined the Army on June 3, 1975 and I didn’t go to my basic training until July. So I went through that, I became a military policeman (and) I was stationed up in Milwaukee, Wis., with a job of chasing AWOLs,” he said. “Then in May of ‘76, I came down on orders and I went to Kaiserslautern, Germany. So I worked in Germany the rest of my time. I was a military policeman on the street and did accident investigation until my honorable discharge in August of ‘78. So I spent three years (in the army).”

It was in Germany where Bristow met his wife Rosi who was German and born in Berlin. The two married in Germany in 1978 while he was in the U.S. Army and have been married for 45 years.

“She has been the steadfast rock by my side all these years,” Bristow said. “This path we took together and she has supported me every step of the way.”

The couple moved to the United States in 1978 and brought home a five-week-old baby. Upon returning home, Bristow worked in the oilfield 70 hours a week for Dresser Atlas, which was a wireline service. Due to the work hours involved, Bristow moved back to his initial dream of being a police officer.

“They needed a city marshal in Newcastle, Texas. The one that was there before had gone on to do something else. So I applied and I got the job... starting, I believe, it was October of ‘78,” he said. “...A friend of mine, Mike Kessler, was a constable at the time (and) he lived in Newcastle. Between him and I, we were the police of Newcastle... for about 14 months.”

Due to the oil boom, Graham Police Department was needing to expand its force and was hiring for officers. It was on Jan. 1, 1980 that Bristow joined GPD and worked on the midnight shift for five years.

“I always loved being a policeman,” he said. “I feel like I could still get in a patrol car now and go to work because that was always in my blood. Except I don’t think I can stay up all night like I used to.”

In 1979, the two highway patrolmen that Bristow had driven with in high school were driving back and forth to Midwestern State University pursuing undergraduate degrees. Queen talked Bristow into attending college starting in the Fall 1979. He rode every Tuesday and Thursday to MSU and took classes from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. In 1986, Bristow received an undergraduate degree.

“I was working the midnight shift until November of ‘85. By that time, I had three kids and I would work from 11 p.m. to 7 (a.m.) Most of the time my partners covered me, I’d get off about 6:30 (a.m.), go home, change clothes, drive to Wichita, and be there by 8 (a.m. to) be in class until one o’clock and then come home at 2 (p.m.) and sleep until 9 (p.m.) and get up and go back to work at a midnight shift,” he said. “So I did three years where I was working the midnight shift and going to college. I have to admit, I slept through half my classes up there.”

Bristow said he wanted to be a highway patrol officer, but it required him to complete a six-month academy in Austin where you could not take your family. He thought of pursuing a federal job until his professor suggested he attend law school.

He took the Law School Admission Test and was accepted into the Cumberland School of Law at Stamford University in Birmingham, Ala. in April 1986.

“So my wife and I drove out to Birmingham, which I had not been to before, and found a place to live for Rosi and the three kids. In August (1986), that was my last day at Graham PD and we packed our stuff up in a U-haul and we took off and arrived out there and I went to law school for three years at Cumberland School of Law,” he said. “…Every time the Christmas break and summer break came, I was back home (in Graham). My mother lived here and to come home we would stay with her. I worked for (the law firm) Stephens and Crawford... during the summer.”

In 1989, Bristow graduated from law school and his family moved back to Graham. He went to work for Stephens and Crawford in private practice to get his feet wet as an attorney. He later ran and won the election in 1992 for the Young County Attorney position and was sworn into the position in January 1993.

“I was the county attorney until ‘96,” Bristow said. “John Neal had stopped being the DA and ran for district judge. He was defeated and moved to Austin. When he left the DA’s office, I made an application, to Gov. (George W.) Bush at the time, to take his place. I was the only one that asked for it. I was appointed in May of ‘96 as the sitting district attorney.”

He served as the district attorney until 2008 when he was defeated in the election and then returned to private practice. In 2012, Stephen Crawford left early from the district judge office and Bristow sought an appointment from Gov. Rick Perry to the position, which was granted.

In his time as 90th Judicial District Judge, Bristow worked hard to have a probation department that would do everything they can to assist defendants on probation while also making sure they are following the rules.

“I wanted the ability to make sure that... when people are placed on probation that they go out and they make sure they are in compliance and when they’re not in compliance, I want to know... most of the time through the DA to make sure they’re in compliance,” he said. “Then there’s always consequences for actions. I’m one that feels like there has to be consequences for actions.”

The district judge said in his time as the judge the courthouse has upgraded how cases are handled and has kept up with technological innovations with e-filing systems and electronic access.

Bristow said he would be remiss not to acknowledge his staff who have assisted him along the way.

“I’ve had the greatest staff, Beverley Ford, Kim Reeves, our court reporter, and then juvenile probation, Heath Henderson... and then Scott Wallace in probation,” he said. “All of the staff has been so good to work with. They’re the type of staff that I don’t have to (do) over the shoulder work. They just do such a good job.”