LEWISTON — Just down the street from where he first practiced law is the plaza named Thursday for Armand A. Dufresne Jr., who in 1970 was named the first Franco-American chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

A monument bearing Dufresne’s name and portrait was unveiled by his three daughters in what was once called Courthouse Place. It was renamed Thursday in Dufresne’s honor.

During a dedication ceremony in the plaza, across Lisbon Street from 8th District Court, Dufresne’s daughter, Carmen, talked about life with her father. He drew equal joy and comfort from family, career and community, she said.

Dufresne distinguished himself in the community, serving first as city attorney, then as attorney for Androscoggin County. After that, he served as judge of probate in Androscoggin County, then as an Androscoggin County Superior Court justice, followed by associate justice on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. In 1970, he was named chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and served in that role for seven years until his retirement. After that he continued to serve in active-retired status. He retired in 1985. He died in 1994.

“It’s really an extraordinary record of public service,” Active-Retired Maine Supreme Judicial Court Justice Robert Clifford said Thursday as host of the dedication ceremony.

Dufresne was an “excellent, outstanding and active citizen in our community” Clifford said.

Mayor Robert Mcdonald said renaming the plaza was the brainchild of the late Androscoggin County Probate Judge Robert Couturier.

Couturier seized on the idea in 2004, then approached the City Council in 2008 with his plan, Carmen Dufresne said. With the help of then-Mayor Laurent Gilbert Sr. and the financial assistance of the Androscoggin County Bar Association, the idea became reality, she said.

A Quebec native who emigrated from Canada to Lewiston as a child, Dufresne not only became the first Franco-American to head up the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, he also helped modernize Maine’s judicial system.

“Under his leadership, Maine’s court system went through huge changes and became a consolidated and unified system, the basic structure that remains today” Clifford said. Dufresne was succeeded in that role by former Chief Justice Vincent McKusick, who completed the transformation of the judicial system and was on hand Thursday for the celebration. Also looking on were local judges from the Maine Judiciary Branch, as well as lawyers and state legislators.

“In so many ways, (Dufresne’s) life and his work stand as the very foundation of the work that we do today,” Maine Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Leigh Ingalls Saufley said Thursday.

As Maine’s 79th associate justice named to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, Dufresne was only the third Franco-American to serve on that court. He was the 23rd chief justice on that court.

“You will note,” Saufley said, “to us, numbers are very important.”

With Dufresne’s appointment to the state’s highest court, “It really, truly heralded in an era of many fine jurists in Maine with Franco-American heritage,” Saufley said. Today, 23 judges with significant Franco-American heritage have served on the Maine state courts. “We’ve come a long way,” she said.

Over the course of Dufresne’s tenure on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, he wrote 262 opinions and 33 dissents or concurrences. He was among the first jurists on the court to write regularly in dissent, Saufley said.

One of his dissents, in Pendexter v. Pendexter, is still spoken of for its advanced thinking regarding equality in parental rights, Saufley said.

“Under his leadership, the courts in Maine, which came into the 1970s as three disjointed, separately funded, somewhat disorganized entities, were consolidated under one administration with consistent funding from state government, rather than the patchwork of county and state funding,” Saufley said.

Dufresne created the Administrative Office of the Courts and he brought to the administration a professional presence, she said. Only through persistence and his relationships with judicial branch staff and legislators was he able to accomplish the task of transforming the system, she said.

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