The Oklahoma Bar Journal April 2023

Bob Warren Rabon Dec. 19, 1939 – March 5, 2023 OBA President 1993

Bob Warren Rabon of Hugo died March 5 at the age of 83. He was born Dec. 19, 1939. Mr. Rabon graduated from Rattan High School in 1957 and earned his bachelor’s degree in education from Southeastern State College in 1963. He received his J.D. from the OU College of Law in 1968. Upon graduation, he returned to Hugo to begin his practice, which lasted more than 54 years. Mr. Rabon was known as a “lawyer’s lawyer” throughout Oklahoma. He was extremely active in the Oklahoma Bar Association, serving on the Board of Governors from 1987 to 1989, as vice president in 1990 and as president of the association in 1993. He was a Fellow of the Oklahoma Bar Foundation and the American Bar Foundation, as well as a faculty member of the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s Sovereignty Symposium. He also served on the Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission from 1989 to 1995 and received an award for his out standing service as chairman and member of the JNC. In 1997, he was admitted as a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, which distinguishes and recognizes the best trial lawyers in the United States and Canada. He was a member of the Oklahoma Council on Judicial Complaints from 1995 to 2005 and served as chairman of the council in 2000 and 2002.

He was the general counsel for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma for 47 years and was serving as an appellate judge for the nation’s district court. As general counsel, he was the sole negotiator between the tribe and the state in the adoption of the Model Tribal Gaming Compact, which allowed the nation to conduct Class 3 gaming in its casinos. He argued two cases before the United States Supreme Court and was instrumental in negotiating the set tlement between the Chickasaw Nation and the Choctaw Nation and the United States for the loss of several million acres of timber around the turn of the century. Throughout his career, Mr. Rabon received many awards, including the OBF Distinguished Service Award in 1992-93, the Outstanding Service Award from Oklahoma Attorneys Mutual Insurance Co. in 2003 and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Southeastern Oklahoma State University. In recognition of his service to the bar and his community, former Gov. Brad Henry proclaimed June 30, 2004, “Bob Rabon Day.” He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Linda, and his two sons, Sen. Jeff Rabon and Robert Lee Rabon, who prac ticed law with his father for 33 years. He also had five grandchildren, William “Chance” Rabon, Jeff Warren Rabon II, Temple Floyd Rabon, Berri Compton and Jackson Thomas Rabon, and one great-grandchild, Willa Bell Compton.

80 | APRIL 2023

THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL