| John Code Mowbray | |
| Office2: | Justice of the Nevada Supreme Court (Seat A) |
| Term Start2: | October 1, 1967 |
| Term End2: | January 4, 1993 |
| Predecessor2: | Position Created |
| Successor2: | Miriam C. Shearing |
| Birth Date: | 20 September 1918 |
| Birth Place: | Bradford, Illinois, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. |
| Education: | Western Illinois University University of Notre Dame |
| Allegiance: |  United States |
| Unit: | United States Army Air Corps |
| Serviceyears: | 1942–1946 |
| Rank: | Major |
| Battles: | World War II |
John Code Mowbray (September 20, 1918 – March 5, 1997)[1] [2] [3] was a Nevada attorney and judge who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada from 1967 to 1993.
Born in Bradford, Illinois, to Thomas J. and Ellen Driscoll (Code) Mowbray,[1] [2] Mowbray received a degree in education from Western Illinois University in 1940, and was a high school teacher from then until 1942, when he enlisted in the United States Army to fight in World War II.[1] He served as an aircraft pilot in the United States Army Air Corps,[2] remaining in the service until 1946, and attaining the rank of major.[1]
After the war, Mowbray received his law degree from the Notre Dame Law School in 1949,[1] where he served as president of the student body,[3] and on the advice of Senator Pat McCarran, moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, to enter the practice of law that year.[1] He worked as deputy in the office of the district attorney for Clark County, Nevada, until 1953, when he entered private practice.[2]
From 1955 to 1959, Mowbray served as a Referee in Bankruptcy,[1] and in 1959, Governor Grant Sawyer named Mowbray to a seat on the Nevada Eighth Judicial District Court, where Mowbray served for twelve years, from 1959 to 1967.[1] [2] During this time, Mowbray addressed a substantial backlog in cases and championed legislation to protect abused children and provide public defenders for indigent defendants.[1]
On August 11, 1967, Governor Paul Laxalt appointed Mowbray to a newly established seat on the state supreme court. Mowbray was subsequently reelected four times, and served for several periods as Chief Justice of the court.[1] Towards the end of his career on the state supreme court, Mowbray was troubled by glaucoma slowly causing blindness, and bitterly disputed criticisms from other members of the court asserting a decline in his work.[2] [3] Mowbray retired from the bench in January 1993, after twenty-five years on the high court.[1]
Mowbray died in a Las Vegas hospital, where he was being treated for kidney problems, at the age of 78.[2]