Allen Banks Burch (1894 – May 31, 1948) was a justice of the Kansas Supreme Court from January 8, 1945, to May 31, 1948.[1]
He was elected to the supreme court to fill the seat vacated by the retirement of justice John Shaw Dawson.[2] He stood as a Republican for position 7 on the court,[3] and when elected was the youngest member of the court.[4] He was succeeded by Austin M. Cowan after his unexpected death.[1] This was a temporary appointment pending an election of Robert T. Price who completed the unexpired term of Burch.[5]
He wrote the minority opinion for the 1947 Reorganization Act that invalidated all sections of the 1945 Reorganization Act deemed to violate the state constitution.[6]
He was a member of the American Bar Association and the Kansas Bar Association.[7] He had also been the vice president and counsel to The Morris Plan bank of Kansas.[8]
He was born in Carthage, Missouri in 1894 to a medical doctor,[9] growing up in Fredonia, Kansas.[7] As a child he visited Europe with his father, and saw art and culture that inspired him to later take up oil painting.[9] He graduated from the University of Kansas in 1917,[7] took the bar exam in June 1917[10] and joined an old law firm in Wichita.[9] His career was interrupted by World War I in which he served.[9] He returned from the war to practice law in Wichita until he was elected to the supreme court.[7]
He was currently living in Wichita, Kansas when he died in Topeka, Kansas from a heart attack May 31, 1948.[7] He had the fatal attack whilst playing bridge with his wife and friends.[4] He left behind his wife May, a son Howard M. Burch and two daughters Joan Burch and Betty Dreher.[7]