The fairest judge with the straightest sideburns and the squarest jaw, Michael J. Torphy, who served 30 years as a judge in Dane County and seemed surprised that he retired as an optimist, died Thursday in a Madison hospice at age 78.

Some of the cases he presided over — the row of murderous infamy alone would include Barbara Hoffman, Ralph Armstrong, the Ghost Riders motorcycle gang and Roger Lange, as a start — will long be discussed in Downtown bars upholstered with lawyers and reporters who benefited from Torphy's patience and institutional memory, and appreciated his attention to detail. He meticulously preserved the image of the court as a place where everyone is treated fairly, and he was just as dedicated to a love of a good joke.

He once asked a burglary suspect's permission to continue presiding over a case that involved the suspect's purloining items from several residences, including Torphy's. The burglar approved. His public service included the years when Dane County's courts greeted the legal results of campus riots and demonstrations.

Torphy was a Madison resident from age 6 and didn't leave except in the mid-1950s, when he interrupted law school and a bartending job at Kennedy Manor for two years of Army service. Private practice led to an appointment as district attorney, then family court as an appointed commissioner. He was elected a county judge in 1968.

When he retired in 1998, well-wishers included defense and prosecuting lawyers, and fellow judges who eagerly provided fond send-offs for Torphy and seemed genuinely sorry to see him go.

Thursday, longtime defense attorney Dennis Burke, hearing of Torphy's death, called him "a beautiful man and a sensational judge.

"He treated everyone like a human being and was beyond fair, he was very funny, loved a cocktail, loved to laugh, loved detective stories," said Burke.

"He wasn't one to hem-haw or spit-sputter about what to do," said retired colleague Circuit Judge Jack Aulik, in 1998.

To Torphy, the legal process was simple: "I'd like to have lawyers know what their case is about, and I'd like for them to be able to present it. I'd generally prefer that they present it in a civilized manner."

It was generally agreed he wasn't asking for anything he wouldn't require of himself.

Torphy spent a good deal of his past ten years of retirement at the family cottage in Crystal Lake, Minn., with his wife of 51 years, Maureen. Their two daughters, Laura and Karen, live in Chicago and Arcata, Calif. He was a good swimmer, loved the water and earned two letters while on the UW-Madison crew team in the 1950s.

Funeral services

The funeral for Michael Torphy will be at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Ellen and Peter Johnson Hospice Care Center, 5395 E. Cheryl Parkway, where visitation will be from 1 to 3 p.m.