Skip to main content

John W. Houghton

John Woodburn Houghton, 89, of Carmel, IN, and a former resident of Huntington, IN, died July 25, 2009.

Mr. Houghton practiced law with the firm of Barnes & Thornburg LLP and its predecessor, Barnes, Hickam, Pantzer & Boyd, both in Indianapolis, from 1943 until his retirement in 1999. He was a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. He had served as president of the Indianapolis Bar Association in 1961, the Lawyers Association of Indianapolis in 1952-53 and the Indianapolis Lawyers Club in 1971-72.

He served as director of Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana from 1958 to 1989, was president of the Indianapolis Legal Aid Society in 1959 and served on the Board of Visitors of the Indiana School of Law at Bloomington.

He was a graduate of Huntington High School and earned his undergraduate degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1941. He earned his law degree from the Indiana University School of Law and, in 1995, was inducted into the Academy of Law Alumni Fellows of the Indiana School of Law.

He was born March 30, 1920, in Vincennes to Howard Baker and Mary Woodburn Houghton. He married Ruth Prickett, who survives.

Additional survivors include three sons, John W. Houghton Jr., James P. Houghton and Jay D. Houghton; a brother, William H. Houghton; and five grandchildren, Karen, Heather, Casey and Blake Houghton and Jacqueline Klukosky.

A service was held Saturday, Aug. 1, at St. Luke's United Methodist Church, Indianapolis.
Preferred memorials are gifts to the IU Foundation for the School of Law-Bloomington or to the American Cancer Society.

Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Center, Carmel, was in charge of arrangements.