The territory lost one of its former Yukon Supreme Court judges Friday.

The flag in front of the local courts building flew at half-mast today to mark the death of Ralph Hudson from cancer.

The 73-year-old, who was informally known as Buzz, was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993 and worked in the territory until his retirement in 2003.

It was his ability to listen and emphasize with people who made him such a good judge, said his former legal partner, Erik Nielsen, who later became the deputy prime minister in the Brian Mulroney government of the 1980s.

Hudson, a B.C. native, moved to the Yukon in 1960 when he took his first job as a lawyer with Nielsen after articling in Vancouver.

He would later go on to be a partner in Stu Henderson's and Nielsen's law firm, where he practised criminal, corporate and mining law.

One of Hudson's former friends, Ken McKinnon, described the judge today as a great human being.

'Even people he sent to jail would tell him they thought he was a great person,' McKinnon told the Star. 'And after years of listening to the horrible stories that a judge has to listen to, he never once lost his optimism.'

McKinnon said his children always got a kick out of Hudson's visits.

'Whenever he came over, they would yell: Judge Buzzy is here!'

'And being a great bear of a man, Buzz would use his most official voice, saying: My name isn't Judge Buzzy. I am Justice Ralph E. Hudson of the Supreme Court of the Yukon Territory.' My kids would be rolling on the floor in hysterics.'

Nielsen described him as a gentleman.

'He was very honest and trustworthy,' he said. 'Ralph was always full of life, even when he was dying. He was always positive.'

The last time McKinnon saw Hudson was late last year at the funeral of John Anton, a Yukon lawyer who died in a Whitehorse apartment fire.

'He was quite upbeat, even though everybody knew it was likely the last time we would see Buzz,' said McKinnon.

The court of law wasn't the only court Hudson was known to visit. He also spent a great deal of time on the basketball courts, having played for the University of British Columbia, where he did his law degree and graduated in 1959.

'He was very athletic,' said Nielsen.

Hudson, who was born and raised in Victoria, was on the team that represented the Yukon in the first ever Canada Winter Games in 1967.

During his Yukon basketball days, Hudson often travelled across Alaska for games.

'As you can imagine, things were quite different back then,' said his former teammate McKinnon, adding there were no real roads to Skagway or Haines in the winter.

'So, as you can imagine, it was a real adventure.'

The team used to have to travel to Skagway on a train and then have friends in Haines pick them up in a fishing boat late at night and take them to parties in the other town.

'We'd always have our wives and girlfriends and we'd have an orchestra with us to play at parties,' said McKinnon. 'So there was a real different type of theme to going to a basketball game for the weekend than now.'

Hudson also played football and did so until he suffered a back injury, said Nielsen.

McKinnon said Hudson was like family to him. Hudson's wife, Jan, would always have Hudson's single friends over for supper.

Hudson, a fan of crossword puzzles, was also known for his great knowledge of the English language.

'You couldn't beat him at Scrabble,' said McKinnon. 'If you pronounced a word wrong or said a bad sentence, he would let you know about it.'

Hudson was also known to be a great outdoorsman, said Nielsen.

'He loved the quiet serenity of nature,' he said.

After the Neilsen-Henderson-Hudson firm split apart, Hudson moved in 1974 down to Vancouver, where he was invited to join a friend's law firm.

However, he returned to the Yukon from time to time as a judge after he was appointed to the territorial court in 1976.

Hudson was later appointed to the B.C. provincial court in 1982 and sat as a judge in Vancouver and Victoria until he became the senior judge of the Supreme Court of the Yukon.

Throughout his legal career, Hudson was an active volunteer as the president of the Law Society of the Yukon and the director of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce.

Hudson also organized a number of continuing legal education seminars for Yukon lawyers.

In 1970, Hudson ran for the Whitehorse East seat on the Yukon territorial council, finishing third behind Norm Chamberlist and Don Branigan.

'He was known for his love of the law and finely-honed sense of humour,' said current Yukon Supreme Court Justice Ron Veale, who was appointed to the bench in 2000.

'I remember we had just finished hearing from a witness in Japan through a teleconference and Justice Hudson piped up with a sayonara,' Veale said today.

He said although it doesn't sound like a funny story when retold, at the time, the whole courtroom was laughing.

He said Hudson loved jury trials because it was an opportunity for the public to be involved in the judicial process.

Hudson retired from law in 2003, buying a home on Salt Spring Island, B.C.

'It was a beautiful property with a magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean. He and Jan had just finished their renovations on it before he died,' said McKinnon.

Hudson is survived by his wife, his daughters, Lori, Kim and Tamara, and his son, Patrick.

McKinnon said there will likely be a memorial service held in Whitehorse and his ashes are to be spread in Marsh Lake.

'That is where we spent the happiest summers of our lives,' said McKinnon. 'When we were young and foolish, we lived in shacks out there with no electricity and no running water just outhouses.'