After more than 30 years on the bench in courtrooms across Eastern North Carolina, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Frank R. Brown of Tarboro will retire Friday.

Brown, 72, retires as the head of the state Judicial Districts 7C and 7B, which covers all of Edgecombe and Wilson counties.

Judge Milton F. "Toby" Fitch Jr. of Wilson will take Brown's position as senior resident superior court judge, with Tarboro attorney Walter H. Godwin appointed Friday by Gov. Mike Easley as the newest superior court judge.

Godwin will serve his term through 2010. Brown said if he had retired on or before Sept. 5, Godwin would have stood for election on Nov. 4.

To celebrate Brown's retirement, his portrait will be hung in the Edgecombe County Courthouse's superior court room at 4 p.m. on Nov. 7. A reception will be 5 p.m. at Stack's Restaurant the same day.

Thursday, Brown's portrait will be unveiled at an invitation-only reception, from 6-9 p.m. at Edgecombe Community College's Mobley Atrium.

Brown said he didn't set out for a career as a judge. As a teen attending West Edgecombe High School in the early '50s, Brown had aspirations of a political career, and he figured that becoming a lawyer was his quickest route to the Legislature.

In 1953 and 1955, Brown got a taste of government when he worked at the state Legislature as a page. After graduating high school in 1955, he received the Morehead Scholarship and attended UNC-Chapel Hill until 1961, receiving his bachelor's law degrees.

Without the Morehead Scholarship, he said he likely wouldn't have been able to attend UNC-Chapel Hill.

For a while in college, Brown worked at a record store on the corner of Walnut and he worked as a clerk at a local bank, and the two were married May 1, 1965.

After getting married, Brown stayed with Weeks and Muse until the end of 1970. On Jan. 1, 1971, he was appointed assistant district attorney in the 7th Judicial District. Less than six years later, on Nov. 11, 1976, he was appointed district attorney. Less than 15 months later, on Jan. 27, 1978, Brown was appointed superior court judge of the 7th Judicial District.

In January 1983, he succeeded the late George M. Fountain as senior resident superior court judge of the 7th Judicial District.

Now that he is retiring, his wife, who retired as director of the Edgecombe Community College Foundation, said she hopes her husband will have a chance at a "more-laid back" lifestyle.

Brown said he will stay on as a recalled judge, likely working in the court's administrative offices around "once a month." He'll get to keep his second-floor office in the Edgecombe County Courthouse, too, which he feels he deserves after more than 30 years as a judge.

Even though he'll still have a role with the court system, Jo Ann Brown said her husband hates to quit, saying she knows he is still a capable judge.