Thiemann Scott Offutt (1872-1943)

Portrait from the Distinguished Men of Baltimore and Maryland, 1914.

  A leading attorney and jurist in Maryland during the first half of the 20th century, Thiemann Scott Offutt logged over two decades of service as a judge on Maryland's Third Judicial Circuit Court as well as the State Court of Appeals. The son of William Scott and Henrietta (Baker) Offutt, Thiemann Scott Offutt was born on his family's farm in Montgomery, Maryland on June 12, 1872. Bestowed the curious name "Thiemann" upon his birth, the origins behind Offutt's first name remain unknown at the time of this writing.  

  Recorded by most sources under the abbreviated name "T. Scott", Offutt's early education was obtained in the public schools of Montgomery County, and in 1891 enrolled at the University of Virginia. He studied here until 1893 and also attended St. John's College in Annapolis. Offutt would study law in Towson, Maryland under the tutelage of a cousin, Milton Offutt, and was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1898. He began his practice with Milton Offutt shortly after his admittance to the bar and in October 1903 married Lydia Traill Yellott (1873-1969) in Towson. The couple's marriage extended forty years and had three children, John Yellott (1905-1940), Thiemann Scott Jr. (1907-1976), and Mary Traill (1908-1958).

   Following the dissolution of the law partnership with his cousin, T. Scott Offutt established a law practice with his father-in-law John Israel Yellott, and a brother-in-law, Osborne Ingle Yellott (1871-1922). In addition to having an odd name, Osborne I. Yellott would also attain prominence in Maryland politics, being a one-term state representative from 1894-95 and later was a photography critic and state employment commissioner. This partnership would also dissolve after several years, whereafter Offutt continued to practice alone. 

  Offutt made his first foray into Maryland politics in 1913, when he was elected to the board of county commissioners for Baltimore County. He would serve here from 1914 to 1920 and during his tenure authored Offutt's Code of Local Laws of Baltimore County, a work later acknowledged as "one of great value for the lower courts of the county." After two decades of practicing law, Offutt was tapped by then-Governor Albert Ritchie in 1920 to fill a vacancy on the Maryland Circuit Court of Appeals, this vacancy coming about due to the resignation of Chief Justice Nicholas Charles Burke.

  Taking his seat on the bench in March of that year, Offutt would serve as Chief Judge of the Third Circuit, while additionally serving as an associate judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals. In 1921 Offutt was elected to a full fifteen-year term on the bench and in 1923 began a year-long term as President of the Maryland Bar Association. In 1936 Offutt was reappointed to the court by Governor Harry Whinna Nice and two years later won reelection, serving on the bench until retiring in 1942, having reached the mandatory retirement age of seventy. 

 T. Scott Offutt's final years as a judge were marred by impaired health, having suffered a stroke in 1940. This stroke forced Offutt to become "partially invalidid" and "prevented him from doing further legal work." Offutt would also experience personal tragedy in the same year as his stroke, suffering the death of his eldest son Jon in a drowning accident at Ocean City, Maryland. 

Judge Offutt as he appeared late in his court tenure.

  During his twenty-two-year tenure on the Maryland bench, Offutt garnered the reputation as a "prodigious worker" and was acknowledged by his fellow justices as having been "one of the most informed members of the Appellate Court of his generation." Active in a number of other non-judicial areas, Offutt was an avid horseman, tennis player, and golfer, and held memberships in the Towson Elks Lodge and the Grand Lodge of Masons of Maryland, where he was a past grand senior warden. 

  Despite the debilitating effects of his stroke, Offutt retained his mental faculties and following retirement from the bench frequently followed sporting events on the radio and in newspapers. Thiemann Scott Offutt died at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Christmas Eve 1943, aged 71. His wife Lydia survived him by over twenty years, and following her death at age 93 was interred alongside her husband at the Prospect Hill Park Cemetery in Towson.

From the Salisbury Times, December 27, 1943.