LONGVIEW, Texas-David Brabham was fresh out of the University of Houston Law School in 1977, when he wandered into the Gregg County District Attorney's Office looking for a job.
The Longview News-Journal reports back then, the offices were on either side of the reception area where he sat and watched the prosecutors and legal assistants shuttling back and forth. The receptionist who asked him to be seated used one of those fluorescent, magnifying-glass reading lights that Brabham recently recalled " ... made her face appear three times as large" when she turned it to speak.
"The office was a beehive of activity going across, and the phones were ringing," Brabham told more than 175 fellow judges, retired jurists, attorneys, court officers and friends who packed the 188th District judge's courtroom for his retirement ceremony.
His interview that day with then-District Attorney Odis Hill launched the Longview native on a 41-year career in the Gregg County Courthouse-36 of those years in public service and the last 22 presiding over the 188th.
After serving five years as an assistant prosecutor, Brabham entered private practice about five years before running for district attorney in 1986 and holding the office for about 10 years.
In 1996, then-Gov. George W. Bush named him to succeed 188th District Judge Larry Starr, who had been appointed to the 6th Court of Appeals.
As a judge, Brabham has tried more than 500 jury trials. More than 35,000 civil and felony cases have come through his court, local and state records provided by 124th District Judge Alfonso Charles show. While a prosecutor, Brabham tried three capital murder cases that drew a death sentence.
But on a recent Thursday, his praise was for the people with whom he works.
"We've got a bench here that I'd put up against anyone," Brabham told the filled gallery, the local judicial bench seated behind him as retired or retiring judges looked on from the jury box.
Brabham retires officially on Dec. 31. He will go now into private practice and will serve as a visiting judge. He will be succeeded by newly elected Republican Scott Novy.
"I've been talking to Scott a lot," Brabham said. "And the reason he's going to be a great judge is he's got a good heart."
That image of younger judges seeking advice from the county's senior judge became a theme of the ceremony.
"It was not unusual to have been in his office visiting with him and any one of these judges have come in," said County Court at Law No. 1 Judge Kent Phillips, who succeeded retiring Judge Becky Simpson in spring 2017. "They have all sought his wise advice and counsel. He will truly be missed."
Brabham steered the spotlight onto three other elected officials who also won't be in office next year-District Clerk Barbara Duncan, County Clerk Connie Wade and District Attorney Carl Dorrough, the latter of whom Brabham had hired into the D.A.'s office.
"And he has shown us integrity and hard work," the judge said of Dorrough. "His car is the first one in the parking lot every morning and usually the last one to leave. With his wit and humor, he's lowered my blood pressure 20 points."
He praised his staff-Court Coordinator Dawn Callow, Court Reporter Grelyn Freeman and Bailiff Mitchell Bozman.
"I have to thank Dawn, who's had my back for 22-plus years now," he said.
With a nod from County Judge Bill Stoudt, who is administrator for the courthouse building, Brabham dedicated the Seal of Texas behind the judge's bench to his parents, Herb and Polly Brabham, who had donated the state icon when commissioners remodeled the 188th.
Their son opened the box to a diamond-studded retirement watch from county employees, and accepted a Lone Star flag flown over the Texas Capitol and sent by state Rep. Jay Dean, R-Longview.
The judge teared up once, thanking his wife, Beverly.
"I said I wasn't going to do this," he said of his emotion.
And he praised Charles, another former assistant D.A. and longtime friend.
"All the state legislators and state senators, they know Alfonso," he said, referring to his colleague's liaison work with lawmakers in Austin.
Charles recalled grins he and Brabham's staff shared in the District Attorney's Office when District Attorney Brabham had announced he was finally ready to use computers. (They'd been swiping parts as needed off his unused computer.)
Yet Brabham both embraced and promoted technological advances, overseeing as local administrative judge the implementation of the county's electronic filing system. He also made use of sentencing options that steer defendants to drug-free lives or teach them to govern their violent tempers.
Substance abuse felony probation, counseling and outpatient rehabilitation have become local sentencing options, along with a residential rehab facility operated by the probation department. A drug court was dedicated nine years ago and has produced some of what Brabham has called his most rewarding moments on the bench as people turn their lives around.
"He became a leader in that, not just in Gregg County but in the East Texas region, the way we address drug cases now, and especially with trying to help those with addiction needs," Charles said. "He was one of the leaders in getting us to recognize those options and getting us to use those."