Tuttle, who was called by The Atlanta Constitution "perhaps the most influential civil rights judge in Southern history," ordered the integration of the University of Georgia in 1961 as chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In his obituary June 24, The New York Times wrote, "[he] played a pivotal role in extending civil rights to black Southerners in the 1950s and '60s. . . . Judge Tuttle's court struck down discriminatory barriers that had been erected in voting, jury selection and employment, transformed the law on school desegregation, and established standards and procedures aimed not only at ending discrimination, but also at overcoming the effects of past discrimination."
Tuttle was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1980. He stepped down from active duty as a senior judge in 1995.
Born in Pasadena, Calif., he earned his A.B. in 1918 and his LLB in 1923, both at Cornell. As an undergraduate, he was editor of The Cornell Daily Sun.
Tuttle became a member of the Cornell Board of Trustees in 1946 and served for 23 years, becoming an emeritus trustee in 1969.
He is survived by a son, Dr. Elbert P. Tuttle Jr. of Atlanta; a daughter, Jane Harmon of Rochester; nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.