YANKTON, S.D. (AP) - First Circuit Court Judge Glen Eng didn’t have the most direct route to becoming a judge in southeast South Dakota. But for nearly 17 years, he’s been a key part of the state’s judicial system.
This summer, Eng announced he would be retiring from his post, the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan . After nearly 17 years in the First Circuit, Eng sat down with the Press & Dakotan to discuss the long road he took becoming a judge and what he’s learned while serving.
When contemplating the future of his education beyond high school, Eng found himself turning to one of the few options he could think of to make college affordable.
“I took kind of a circular route,” Eng said. “I graduated high school and went into the service. That was in 1969. I enlisted in the Army because I wanted to go to college. We didn’t really have the money for that, so I decided that the only route I had was to go into the service.”
Eng went through medic training before being sent to South Vietnam, where he was placed in an ambulance company based near Cam Ranh Bay.
He then took on a task that could hardly be further from being a judge.
“They needed cooks, so I volunteered to be a cook,” he said. “I served over there as a cook for about 15 months and then came back.”
After his duty in Vietnam came to an end, Eng attended the University of South Dakota, where he attained a degree in history in 1974. He subsequently held positions at the Pettigrew Museum and Old Courthouse Museum in Sioux Falls as well as the Center for Western Studies at Augustana College.
But Eng found a career change might be necessary.
“I decided if I was going to continue in that profession that I’d have to get, at least, a master’s degree and probably a PhD,” he said. “I wanted to stay in South Dakota, and there are not very many positions in the state of South Dakota for a person with a museum history background. I decided if I was going to stay in the state, I’d have to do something else, so I applied for law school.”
After receiving his law degree, he practiced in Flandreau for nearly 20 years.
Eng said his path took him to Yankton, thanks in large part to a review of the judicial needs of the state in the late ’90s.
“In 1998-1999, (the state) had done a judicial study and tried to determine the locations they needed judges across the state,” he said. “I was in, what they call now, the old Fourth Circuit. It included Brule County, Davison County, Moody County, Miner County - all across the central part of eastern South Dakota. They decided that there were too many judges in that circuit, so they eliminated that circuit because they went from eight down to seven. They then took the northern counties - which (included) Moody County, where I was at - and put it into the Third Circuit, and the southern counties they moved down into the First Circuit.”
An additional judge position was created in the First Circuit, and Eng successfully applied for it. He was appointed to the First Circuit by Gov. Bill Janklow and took office in October 2000.
Eng said one of the biggest lessons he has learned in his time as a judge is that cases can have a huge impact on people, and that emotions need to be kept in check.
“A judicial officer of any kind needs to be aware that the decisions that you make affect peoples’ lives, it affects their liberty and it affects their property,” he said. “Since I’ve been here almost 17 years, there have been a lot of people who have come through the court system. I understand that it is emotional for them, but a judge has to be careful that they don’t let their emotions get involved in the case. If you do, what happens is you may tip one way or the other and not base your decision upon the facts and the law.”
Eng said each case has been important during his time as a judge in the First Circuit.
“There’s a lot of cases that have had an impact on this community - not just on Yankton, but also . Hutchinson, Bon Homme, Clay County, Union County,” he said. “Every case affects a person’s life. It affects their, potentially, property, their liberty and so every case, in my opinion, is important. I don’t overemphasize any one case or deemphasize any other case.”
Though he officially retired June 8, Eng will serve through the end of August.
From there, Eng said the future is wide open for him and his wife Carla, who also recently retired after serving at Mount Marty College.
“We are planning on doing more traveling than we have been able to,” he said. “We will probably spend more time in the winter time in places where there’s sand and beaches and sun. We don’t have a lot of specific plans at this time.”
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Information from: Yankton Press and Dakotan, https://www.yankton.net/
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