Hon. John A. Borron Jr.

John A. Borron Jr., longtime Jackson County judge and architect and champion of substantial legislative efforts that modernized Missouri’s probate, guardianship/conservatorship and mental health laws, died February 8, 2015, at his home in Kansas City. He was 81. An insatiable reader, a lover of spirited discourse on subjects historical, political, legal and Churchillian, and possessed of a boundless intellectual curiosity, he continued working as an author, consultant, mediator and expert witness until the day he died.

Judge Borron presided over Division 19 of the 16th Judicial Circuit Court of Jackson County from 1988 until his retirement in 2003. He served as Commissioner of the Probate Division from 1970 to 1988. An alumnus of the University of Missouri and its School of Law, he was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1957. He began his legal career with the Kansas City firm of Reeder, Gisler & Dysart and then joined Knipmeyer, McCann & Millett, where he was a trial attorney with an emphasis on civil litigation, tax, corporate law, bankruptcy and probate.

Judge Borron was an author for Thomson Reuters Westlaw and its predecessor, West Publishing, for more than 20 years, producing volumes of work in the Missouri Practice Series on Probate Law and Practice and assuming the work of his law professor, mentor and friend, William F. Fratcher, as editor of Simes and Smith, The Law of Future Interests. “Borron on Probate,” as his works came to be known, was the decisive authority for lawyers seeking answers regarding wills, estate administration, civil commitment, guardianship/conservatorship and right-to-die issues in Missouri.

A former chairman of The Missouri Bar’s Continuing Legal Education Committee, Judge Borron was actively involved as a CLE author and lecturer. Over a 30-year period, he was extensively involved in the legislative process, serving as chairman, liaison or consultant on a long list of legislative initiatives. He also was active in state and local judicial administration, serving as chair or a member of a variety of judicial committees. In such service, he received several awards, including The Missouri Bar President's Award; the Bar Foundation’s Spurgeon Smithson Award; and recognition for service by the Ad Hoc Coalition for Revision of Missouri’s Guardianship Code.

Born in Kansas City and moving as a child to Lake Tapawingo, Judge Borron was committed to civic service in his home in Eastern Jackson County. Running a “country lawyer” practice when he returned home from the city in the evening, as a young lawyer he was president of the Blue Springs R-IV School Board and served the Village of Lake Tapawingo as its City Attorney. He was a member of the Blue Springs Historical Society; the Jackson County Historical Society; The State Historical Society of Missouri; and the St. Louis Mercantile Library and the Winston Churchill Memorial in Fulton, where he held life memberships. He was an American Royal Governor and a Governor of the Liberty Memorial Association. He was a member of the University Club of Kansas City; the Kansas City Club, its 611 and Wise Owl Clubs; the Saturday Afternoon Sewing, Literary and Moral Uplift Society, where he was the 1999 recipient of the Gold Thimble Award; the Ball Club of Kansas City; and Loch Lloyd Country Club. An avid historian, he researched and traced the family genealogy and its roots in Scotland dating back to the Roman Conquest. He and his wife, Janet, cherished their trips over 15 years with their UMKC Law School friends to Oxford, England, where they took side trips to Scotland to conduct onsite research for the genealogy and to visit the family home.

He is preceded in death by his parents, John Arch Borron, and Margaret Elizabeth “Betty” (Wilkins) Borron. He is survived by Janet (Wheaton) Borron, his sweetheart and life partner of 55 years; his daughter, Jennifer Borron Furla, and her husband, John, of Mission Hills, Kansas; and his grandson, John A. “Jack” Borron Furla, whom he adored and of whom he was immensely proud.

A memorial service will be held Friday, February 20, 2015, at 3 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 6401 Wornall Terrace, Kansas City, Missouri. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the Missouri Bar Foundation, P.O. Box 119, Jefferson City, MO 65102, or a charity of the donor’s choice.