Thomas A. Wiseman Jr.

Life and career

Born in Tullahoma, Tennessee, the son of Vera Seleta (Poe) and Thomas Anderton Wiseman, he received a B.A. from Vanderbilt University in 1952, and a J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1954. He was in the United States Army from 1954 to 1956, and then entered private practice in Tullahoma from 1956 to 1963, and in Winchester, Tennessee from 1963 to 1971. He was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1964 to 1968, and was the Treasurer of the State of Tennessee from 1971 to 1974. He ran for the Democratic Party nomination for Governor in 1974 amid a crowded field of candidates and was badly outspent by both eventual nominee and winner Ray Blanton and runner-up Jake Butcher. Wiseman then resumed his private practice, this time in Nashville, Tennessee from 1974 to 1978.

On August 1, 1978, Wiseman was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to a seat on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee vacated by Frank Gray Jr.. Wiseman was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 11, 1978, and received his commission the same day. He served as chief judge from 1984 to 1991, and assumed senior status on November 3, 1995. Wiseman has served as an adjunct faculty member at Vanderbilt University Law School since 1989, and received an LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1990. He was a Special Master for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1992 to 1993.