Cottey names Jim Bickel as newest trustee

Judge Jim Bickel meets with Carla Farmer, vice president for marketing and strategic communications, to begin his second day of new trustee orientation. Bickel will meet with all of Cottey's vice presidents, as well as the president, to become familiar with all of the operations of the College. Photo courtesy Steve Reed/Cottey College

Nevada Daily Mail

Cottey College recently announced the appointment of the Honorable James R. Bickel as the newest member of the Cottey College Board of Trustees. His seven-year term began on June 1. Bickel replaced Greg Hoffman, who had completed a term on the board.

Bickel has been the presiding judge of the 28th Judicial Circuit of Missouri since 2001. He retired from the bench on Friday and following his 70th birthday on Sunday became a senior judge. On Monday he began work filling in as presiding judge of the 28th Circuit Court as a "special assignment of the Missouri Supreme Court," until a new judge is elected in November.

Prior to his election as presiding judge, he had 27 years of private law practice in Nevada with the firm Russell, Brown, Bickel and Breckenridge. He also served as the judge for Nevada's Municipal Court.

Bickel has a passion for the benefits of drug courts and he established treatment courts in all four counties of the 28th Circuit. Making substance abuse treatment an option for addicts, instead of incarceration, has turned lives around for hundreds of participants, reunited families, and made communities safer.

Bickel received his undergraduate and Juris Docto degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He was president of Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity, Order of the COIF initiate, Missouri Law Review.

He has served on the Missouri Bar Fee Dispute Resolution Committee and the Attorney General's Professional Liability Review Board. He has served as special assignment judge on the Missouri Supreme Court, and opinion writer for Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District.

In 2004, Bickel was named Citizen of the Year by the Nevada Rotary Club, and in 2005 he was named an Outstanding Missourian by the Missouri House of Representatives.

Bickel is a member of Nevada United Methodist Church and served on the board of directors of the Missouri United Methodist Foundation from 1993-2001 and on the Foundation's executive committee from 1999-2000.

A U.S. Army and Vietnam veteran, Bickel is married to his wife Sherry. They have three children and four grandchildren. Outside of work, he enjoys golf, bridge and watching his grandchildren's ballgames.