THETFORD — Vermont Superior Court Judge Dickson Corbett died unexpectedly last week.
Former colleagues said Corbett was found unresponsive Thursday morning and was taken to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, where he was pronounced deceased. Colleagues and friends said he died of natural causes.
Corbett was in his mid-40s. His death cuts short a career characterized by an intelligent, kind and community-oriented approach to the law, his colleagues said.
“His passing is a devastating loss to our communities,” Kiara Senecal, co-executive director of Orange County Restorative Justice, said in an interview. “He was doing what he was doing for the right reasons, and that truly showed up in his work.”
Efforts to reach Corbett’s family were unsuccessful. His wife, Megan Campbell, is also a lawyer and works in the Vermont Attorney General’s Office. They have two children, ages 16 and 13. After years living in Chelsea, a short walk from the Orange County Courthouse, they moved to Thetford around the time Corbett became a judge.
Corbett’s mild-mannered and soft-spoken demeanor was backed by a deep knowledge and understanding of the law and a commitment to public service, colleagues said.
“He was a dedicated public servant,” Will Porter, the former Orange County state’s attorney who hired Corbett as a deputy in 2013, said in an interview. Corbett “never saw the law as a means to make money,” Porter said.
A native of Pennsylvania, Corbett earned a bachelor’s degree in English at the University of North Carolina, and graduated from Vermont Law School in 2007 with juris doctor and master’s of environmental law degrees.
“I just recall that he was very active,” said Shirley Jefferson, who was then the law school’s associate dean of student affairs and diversity. He was community-oriented, and also took an interest in the school and its well-being, she said.
He clerked in Orange and Windsor county courts while working out his career plans, and when Porter hired him in 2013, judges had assured him that Corbett was a bright light.
He quickly proved himself to be a strong researcher, an excellent writer, a patient listener with victims and witnesses who also could build good relationships with judges, Porter said.
“He made light-strides the first year he was here,” he said.
Corbett was so capable that Porter assumed he’d quickly move on to bigger things, but instead the young deputy immersed himself in the job and stayed for a decade, taking over for Porter after he retired in 2021.
In addition to his work, Corbett served as the town moderator in Chelsea and served on the town Planning Commission before moving to Thetford.
Corbett’s approach to the law put politics to the side. He remained an independent, but both major parties recommended his appointments as state’s attorney and as judge.
He was eager to be a judge, mainly because he felt he could help more people in that role.
“He was a true scholar of the law, so it was natural for him to be a judge,” Orange County State’s Attorney Colin Seaman, whom Corbett hired as a deputy, said in an interview.
“He was just the most wonderful,” Michelle Donnelly, Washington County state’s attorney and a close friend of Corbett and his family, said in a phone interview. “He was so smart and had such a capacity to research and study the law, but he was also incredibly kind and compassionate. … He wanted to understand people’s stories.”
Corbett had all the makings of a jurist who would fit well on either the state Supreme Court or the federal bench, Porter said. But at the same time, he was not one to chase a title or acclaim, but wanted to find ways to be of help, Donnelly said.
“It was about what he could do through the work,” she said.
‘A profound loss’
Official statements about Corbett’s death stress how great a loss this is for the judiciary. He was assigned to hear cases in Windsor County and was overseeing several with a high public profile.
“I am saddened to learn of the passing of Judge Dickson Corbett,” Gov. Phil Scott, who appointed Corbett to serve as Orange County state’s attorney in 2021 and as a superior court judge in 2023, said in a statement. “I always appreciated his dedication to improving the lives of Vermonters through public service. This is an unfortunate loss for Vermont and the Judiciary, and my heart goes out to Dickson’s family, friends, and colleagues during this difficult time.”
“This is a profound loss for the judiciary and for the many people whose lives were touched by his dedicated public service,” Court Administrator Therese Corsones and Chief Judge Thomas Zonay said in a statement last Thursday.
A conversation with Corbett helped turn Seaman into a public servant after 20 years in private law practice. In court in Chelsea one day in early 2023, Corbett talked to him about an opening in the Orange County state’s attorney’s office. He took the job and replaced Corbett soon after, when Corbett became a judge.
“All I can say about him,” Seaman said, “he is the one who always strived to do what was right.”
