James D. Jensen, who was a lawyer, an assistant U.S. attorney, and for more than two decades a judge — of the Lucas County Common Pleas Court and then the Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals — died Thursday in Hospice of Northwest Ohio, Perrysburg Township. He was 77.

He had metastatic melanoma, his wife, Lynn Jensen, said.

Judge Jensen closed his career with a term on the Appeals Court bench. After winning the Republican primary, he was elected unopposed in 2012. He was appointed to the Common Pleas bench by then-Gov. George Voinovich in 1995, several months after he lost an electoral race for the court. He was elected in 1996 and re-elected thereafter.

He learned two weeks ago that he was to be honored in September with the 2020 Thomas J. Moyer Award for Judicial Excellence, named for the late chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.

Letters supporting his nomination came from Vernelis Armstrong, a retired U.S. magistrate judge who was an assistant U.S. attorney with Judge Jensen; Ohio Supreme Court Justice Patrick Fisher; Lucas County Common Pleas Judges Myron Duhart and Michael Goulding, and such local lawyers as Reginald Jackson, Jr., David Klucas, Jerome Phillips, and Sheldon Wittenberg.

“He was very humbled by it and of course didn’t feel he was deserving,” his wife said. “He really respected Justice Moyer, and it was really an honor for him.”

Lawyers who practiced before him later would seek his advice, but “it wasn’t just for counsel,” said Shelly Kennedy, who worked for the judge as a staff attorney. “People really came to him to find out what to do, what was right.

“He really was amazing,” Mrs. Kennedy said. “He made it easy for me as a working mother to balance my life with a career. He was challenging me on a daily basis to do good. He used to have this phrase, ‘I’d rather be right than affirmed.’”

He had a quiet command, Mrs. Kennedy said, and his goal to make sure those in his courtroom were treated fairly and felt they had been heard. He was among the first judges locally to allow jurors to submit questions and to take notes. If his docket allowed, he took prospective jurors for a tour and history lesson of the courthouse, down to the frog mosaic near the the building’s former Adams Street entrance.

“He was passionate about that courthouse and making sure the courthouse was preserved,” Mrs. Kennedy said.

His wife said: “He loved the Common Pleas Court. He loved the building. He loved the job.”

Mr. Jensen was a former president of the Toledo Bar Association, during which he promoted diversity among leadership.

“It opened doors,” Mrs. Kennedy said.

He also formerly served on the Ohio State Bar Association council of delegates.

“He was the epitome of wisdom,” said Ron Kopp of Akron, a past state bar president who became a close friend. “We would talk about some fairly significant issues. Everyone would look to Judge Jensen and wanted to know what Judge Jensen thought about it.

“He was a wise man — and a very funny man,” Mr. Kopp said.

He was born Feb. 26, 1943, in Denver to Mary and Uffe Jensen. He grew up in Akron, where his father was a cardiologist, and was a 1961 graduate of Buchtel High School. He received a bachelor’s degree in history and political science in 1966 from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and his law degree in 1969 from the University of Toledo. He later was adjunct professor there and helped coach mock trial teams.

He began his career in private practice. He later became an assistant U.S. attorney in Toledo and in 1982 was appointed senior litigation counsel.

At the Department of Justice from 1986-87, he was assistant director of the attorney general’s Advocacy Institute. He taught courses there and at the FBI.

He became a partner in the Toledo law firm of Spengler, Nathanson afterward.

He was formerly married to Marilyn Mensing Jensen.

Surviving are his wife, the former Lynn Blue, whom he married June 23, 1993; daughters Tracy Jensen and Tammy Lakatos; son, Tim Jensen; stepsons Dean Moore and Tyler Stevens, and sisters Judy Schultz, Mary Kay Jensen, and Tina Sullivan.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, a gathering will be held later. Arrangements are by the Ansberg-West Funeral Directors.

The family suggests tributes to Hospice of Northwest Ohio, the Toledo Bar Association, or the Melanoma Research Foundation.

First Published August 9, 2020, 4:00 a.m.