Biographical Note William Augustus Bootle was born August 19, 1902, in South Carolina. At age 15, the family moved to Reidsville, Georgia, where he graduated high school as class valedictorian. By borrowing $300 from a family friend, he was able to enter Mercer University in the fall of 1920 and successfully completed his law degree in 1925. He married Virginia Childs, an alumna of Wesleyan College, in 1928. President Calvin Coolidge appointed him United States Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia in 1929, a post he held until 1933. He then served as dean of Mercer University School of Law from 1933-1937 while also working in the law firm of Carlisle and Bootle. Under President Dwight Eisenhower, the United States Senate confirmed him to a seat on the United States Court, Middle District of Georgia, where he served from 1954 to 1981. From 1970 to 1981, he was the senior judge on the court. While on the court, he issued the rulings that desegregated the University of Georgia (1961) as well as Bibb County public schools (1970). The federal courthouse in Macon was renamed William Augustus Bootle Federal Building in 1998 in his honor, and Mercer University School of Law named an endowed chair for him in 1999. He was a loyal member of First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon and died at the age of 102 on January 25, 2005. (Based on biographical articles in the Macon Telegraph January 26, 2005.)