Sailor, nurse, judge lived full life
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John Hutchins
Retired Haines magistrate John Hutchins, 73, died suddenly Oct. 17 of apparent heart failure near his home in Chimacum, Washington. The family held a graveside memorial service on Oct. 23 at the Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent.
Hutchins served as magistrate in Haines from 2003-2016. In a retirement interview with the CVN, he said it was the best job he ever had. "Everything you do has meaning. You deal with child custody cases, you deal with property, evictions, protective orders, domestic violence, criminal law...You're affecting people's money, their rights, where they live, whether they can keep their children or not," Hutchins said.
A poster on his office wall read, "What people really need is a good listening to."
"He was extremely patient. He took the time to hear everyone. Above all, John brought humanity to the court," clerk Bonnie Hedrick said, noting that a Skagway man Hutchins sentenced to a year in jail even returned later and asked him to officiate at his wedding.
"John was unflappable and did everything thoroughly and meticulously," she said. "He also could tell a joke, and people didn't expect that from a judge."
When Hutchins retired, both the public defender, Tim Ayer, and Amy Paige, the assistant district attorney at the time, penned an "Opposition to Permanent Recusal" with a litany of reasons why Hutchins should remain on the bench, from "consistently fair, well-reasoned and sound rulings," (he was never overturned by a higher court) to "It is unlikely that another magistrate could run the court in a way as fair, compassionate, and pragmatic as Magistrate Hutchins."
Paige told the CVN she believed Hutchins was one of the finest magistrates in Southeast Alaska because he was "careful about getting his decisions right," and when in doubt, consulted with legal experts.
Hutchins listed his home phone number, kept artificial flowers and disposable cameras on hand for courtroom weddings, and eschewed the formality of announcing "All Rise" when he entered the court, mostly because he was already at the bench, exchanging pleasantries with attorneys or defendants while waiting for hearings to begin.
Hutchins' influence remains in the local court, from the toys he purchased for children (and often gave away), to his law library and ship's clock.
"John did many things, but Haines magistrate was his primo job. He loved it. Ironically, he was the least judgmental person I ever met," wife Cheri Hutchins said.
John Wayne Hutchins Jr. was born in Northampton Massachusetts. Oct. 9, 1946 to Margaret McGill and John Wayne Hutchins. His only sister died of cancer. His father was a WW II soldier, carpenter, and teacher. His mother was a homemaker. The family moved to Nigeria when his father took a job as voc-ed teacher at a UN affiliated school in Lagos.
Hutchins attended the Leysin American School in Switzerland where he ski raced and mountain climbed. His favorite teacher was John Harlin, founder of the International School of Modern Mountaineering, who instilled in him a lifelong love of the mountains, which eventually led him to Alaska. After graduation, Hutchins married fellow student Daune Flink, the daughter of an Arabian American Oil Company executive. By the time Hutchins was a sophomore at Carson Newman College in Tennessee the couple was expecting twins, and plans changed. Hutchins briefly worked in an aircraft manufacturing plant building components for the Apollo lunar module and as an orderly in a hospital before enrolling in the Cooley Dick Nursing School in Northampton. After graduating in 1972, he joined the Navy and spent two years in the Philadelphia Naval Hospital during the Vietnam War, nursing service men and women with severe orthopedic and neurological injuries. The Navy paid for him to attend George Washington University where he earned a bachelor's degree in nursing. He became a certified registered nurse anesthetist in 1976.
For the next 17 years he served in Naval hospitals and on Navy ships, including 10 years aboard vessels in the Persian Gulf. His marriage ended in part due to those long separations, he told the CVN.
He was close to his children. Daughter Kelly Hutchins said, "I think of my father as a loving dad, funny, kind and a teller of stories."
Hutchins and Cheri Kay Buchanan, a fellow Navy nurse anesthetist, were wed on Dec. 8, 1988 in Anchorage. They were stationed in San Diego, Iceland, and Adak and in 1993 retired to Anchorage. Hutchins was an obstetric anesthetist at Alaska Regional Hospital for nine more years. When his son John Christopher Hutchins entered law school, he confessed he'd dreamed of becoming a lawyer, and enrolled in online legal classes.
In 2002, Hutchins was hired as a part-time magistrate in Skagway; he began full-time at the Haines court the next year. He never finished law school. John Christopher Hutchins, now an attorney, treasured their daily discussions of the law and so many things. He said his father's joy was "infectious."
Hutchins and his wife and their Bernese mountain dogs (they had up to four) were regular beach walkers. He began restoration of the Felicity Ann, a 1939 sloop that Ann Davison skippered on the first female solo crossing of the Atlantic, before donating it to the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.
In retirement he became a ham radio operator and a certified watchmaker and enjoyed the company of his family, and RV-ing with Cheri and their two corgis.
He is survived by wife Cheri (Chimacum) and children Keith Hutchins (Chimacum), John C. Hutchins (Poulsbo) and Kelly Hutchins (Olympia).
Cheri and Keith Hutchins may be reached at 2481 Anderson Lake Rd. Chimacum, WA 98325.
