I Amounted to Something Dad is Jasper Marshall Cureton's story of making his own way, out of no way. Born in rural South Carolina in 1938, 73 years after his great grandparents were freed from enslavement, his memoir is an intimate look at growing up Black when discrimination was legal and enthusiastically enforced. Jasper made his way through college with the help of a $400 Sears and Roebuck scholarship, served as an officer in the Army, and was the University of South Carolina Law School's first Black student since Reconstruction. Jasper's long road to amounting to something started with his three mile walk to first grade and was capped with his quarter century service as the state's first Black judge of the State Appeals Court.

This memoir was written by Jasper, and this 2022 final version was edited and formatted with volunteer help. As Jasper suffered from End Stage Renal Disease and was undergoing dialysis three times a week, he was getting progressively weaker. Jasper was able to do a book signing at his church days prior to his passing on December 6, 2022. The title of the book came from Jasper's father telling him that he would "never amount to anything," but Jasper got the last word.

Jasper Marshall Cureton is a retired judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals. Before becoming the first Black appellate judge, he served first as Master-in-Equity judge and then as a Family Court Judge. He holds an undergraduate degree from South Carolina State University and a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law. A widower, he is the father of a son and daughter and grandfather of two grandsons. He served in the United States Army and its Reserves, retiring as a colonel. "I always regarded Jasper as a 'Judge's Judge' and the 'fairest of them all.' He fed everybody out of the same spoon of justice. He was neither a 'plaintiff's judge' nor a 'defendant's judge.' Nor was he a legislator posing as a judge. Some would say he was a 'conservative.' I don't know about that. I do know he was not an 'activist.' He lived up to the Court of Appeals motto, 'Ius Suum Quique' -- which means, 'To each his due.' A litigant should expect no more and no less. About his character, my mother used to advise me to avoid anyone who did not value his own character. I don't think she would object to Jasper as someone I hung around with beyond the bench." Bert Goolsby Judge C. Tolbert "Bert" Goolsby Jr. and Judge Jasper M. Cureton were appointed to the South Carolina Court of Appeals for its inaugural session October 17, 1983. They served together for almost a quarter-century and remain life-long friends.