News : Former Vinton Resident honored by the Jackson County Courthouse

A bit of Vinton can be found at the Jackson County Courthouse. Bobbi Alpers, a former Vinton resident, was honored with her portrait being added to the wall in the main courtroom. 

Alpers was the first female chief judge named to the Iowa Courts. "Judge Alpers broke new ground for women in the Iowa judiciary. She will forever be known as the first female appointed chief judge in the state of Iowa,"  Mark Cleve an Iowa Judicial District 7 Senior District Court Judge said. "I know she was very well respected across the state as the chief judge. It would be compassion for those who came before her and really giving those people in the courtroom the feeling that they were being heard" Iowa Judicial District 7 District Court Judge Henry Latham added.

She served more than 20 years as a judge and seven as chief throughout eastern Iowa. She also taught English at Pleasant Valley high school before becoming a judge.

Alpers was born in Vinton, on September 10, 1951, to Harold and Dorothy Alpers and passed away on December 24, 2020, at her home in Jackson county from complications of early onset Alzheimer's. 

Cleve also said of her that "She was thoughtful, compassionate and decisive when required. Quite frequently, she was the smartest person in the room and often, the wisest as well. Underneath it all, Bobbi was simply a first-class human being."

Her family also lived in Manchester, Fort Dodge, Cresco and settled in Maquoketa where she was a member of the graduating class of 1969.

She went on to graduate magna cum laude from the University of Dubuque with a double major in English & French and a minor in history. In 2013 she was named an Alumna of Distinction at the university. She later attended the University of Iowa where she earned a Master's Degree in English. She graduated in 1983 from the University of Iowa Law School, and was immediately offered a position as a judicial law clerk in the 7th Judicial District in Davenport, Iowa.

She then became an Assistant County Attorney before opening her own practice. She was chosen to be a Judicial Magistrate in Scott County and in 1990 was chosen by the governor to be a District Court Judge. At the time she was the only female judge in the five-county 7th Judicial District.

In 2007 the Iowa Supreme Court chose her to be the Chief Judge of the District, the first female to become a Chief Judge of a district in the century-and-a-half of Iowa's legal system.