Robert H. McFarland (February 25, 1919 – March 31, 2008)[1] was a judge of the United States District Court for the Canal Zone from 1978 to 1979.
[3] On June 20, 1978, President Jimmy Carter announced the nomination of McFarland to the seat.
[4] The nomination was praised by Mississippi members of the U.S. Senate John C. Stennis and James Eastland, with Eastland describing McFarland as a longtime friend,[3] though a regional NAACP official called for the withdrawal of the appointment based on a report that McFarland had once chaired a White Citizen's Council in Jasper County, Georgia.
[6] McFarland served until July 1979, two months after his oldest daughter died from complications from juvenile diabetes; McFarland lamented that he and his wife were unable to be with his daughter during the last several months of her life due to the obligations of his office, and desired to thereafter stay closer to their other three children.
[8] While stationed in Texas, McFarland met Susan Showfield, whom he married in 1947, and with whom he had two daughters and two sons.