He was appointed to the office of chief justice Michigan Supreme Court in 1928 (completing the term of the late Richard C. Flannigan).

Born in Lexington, Michigan, he was the eighth of nine children of John Lawrence and Augusta (Walther) Fead.

[4] As one of his eulogists noted: "I was always impressed by his practical approach to a legal proposition and the common sense he invariably used in deciding matters; also, his freedom from erudition.

Salle [sic] in his keeping are the traditions of an informed judiciary, on whose decisions rest the faith and hopes of democracy?

Fead died from a heart attack while being treated for throat cancer in a hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

[1][3][7] He was the subject of a portrait executed in 1944 by Detroit artist Roy C. Gamble (1887–1972) which hangs at the Michigan Supreme Court building.

[1] Six linear feet of his speeches, correspondence, research, scrapbooks, and photographs are held at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan.

Specific subjects included FDR's Supreme Court packing bill, the Newberry State Bank, Masonic affairs, and his World War I service with the American Red Cross in France.