The state’s mandatory retirement age will cost the Kansas Supreme Court a highly respected justice.

If our system of government is to survive, there must be justified respect for the law of the land and for those who serve in law enforcement. This applies to the newest recruit on the smallest police department as well as those who serve on our nation’s highest courts.

To achieve this goal, it is imperative those who serve in law enforcement and those who serve as judges and justices are men and women of the highest integrity.

This is why it is so unfortunate Fred Six will be retiring as a justice on the Kansas Supreme Court. Six, a Lawrence native, is stepping aside because he has reached the court’s mandatory retirement age of 70.

It is ironic that state and federal laws prohibit age discrimination, but those who serve on the Kansas Supreme Court are required to step down when they reach the age of 70 or at the end of the term during which they turn 70.

Good arguments can be made for mandatory retirement for those who reach a certain age, but there are just as many sound arguments against mandatory retirement. Too many good men and women are forced to step aside from their businesses when they have so many positive assets to offer for their businesses or professions. On the other hand, some people remain in their jobs too long and refuse to retire.

Six has compiled a distinguished career. A 1951 graduate of Kansas University, he received his law degree at KU following service as a Marine Corps officer in Korea. While in law school, he was admitted to the Order of the Coif and was editor-in-chief of the Kansas Law Review.

He was in private practice in New York before returning to Kansas to serve as an assistant attorney general. He then became an associate in the Lawrence firm of Asher & Ellsworth, which eventually became Asher, Ellsworth & Six. He later was an associate in the Richard Barber law firm which evolved into Barber, Emerson & Six and eventually into Barber, Emerson, Six, Springer and Zinn.

The Lawrence resident was appointed to the Kansas Court of Appeals in 1987 and to the Kansas Supreme Court in 1988. Throughout his career he has been looked to as an honest, thoughtful and caring attorney and judge and he will be missed. He enjoyed the respect of his fellow judges, and the attorneys who argued their cases before Six knew they had his full attention and that he would study all aspects of the law and the arguments that were presented.

Six has not made any announcements about his plans after retiring from the high court, but it is hoped he will remain active in the field of law.

The state needs more lawyers and justices like Fred Six.