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1936

George C. Seward passed away on February 15 at his home in Scarsdale, N.Y., at the age of 101. He practiced law for over 70 years and continued to work at Seward & Kissel, a Manhattan firm focused on corporate and litigation work for clients in matters involving corporate finance, financial services, and capital markets, three or four days a week in his hundredth year. He was a partner from 1953 until 1983 and served as senior counsel since that time.

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Seward founded the business law section of the International Bar Association and was made honorary life president. In a lecture series named after him, world leaders deliver talks on global issues of timely interest. He became involved with the IBA in the 1960s when it was a federation of bar associations and played a major role in developing the IBA into a worldwide organization of business lawyers as well as a world organization of bar associations.

1940

Mortimer Caplin was honored for his World War II service at the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation 56^th Annual Awards Banquet on February 4 at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

Caplin, a member of the ABF board of directors, received a special honor for his courageous service in World War II. Following graduation from the Law School in 1940, he clerked for U.S. Circuit Judge Armistead Dobie, then joined Cohen, Cole, Weiss & Wharton in New York. Soon after beginning his legal career he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was assigned to naval intelligence, then volunteered for shipboard duty overseas. As beachmaster of the 7^th Navy beach battalion, Caplin participated in the initial landing force on Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy. He was named “Chevalier” of the Legion of Honor by the President of the French Republic, one of France’s highest honors. He also received the Medal of the Jubilee of Liberty from the Governor of the Normandy Region for his courageous contributions to the war effort. After completing his tour of duty, he returned to practice law in New York.

1945

Betty Blair Stewart died at home in Marion, Va., at the age of 89. After graduating from the Law School, where she was editor of the Virginia Law Review, she served as a civilian with the U.S. Army. Later she worked with the State Department in Germany following World War II and as law clerk to the chief justice of the occupation court system. In the 1960s she and her husband, also an attorney, took assignments with the diplomatic corps in Uruguay, Thailand, and Columbia. From 1978 until retirement in 1989 she was an attorney for the housing authority.

1949

Frank Warren Swacker served as a member of the board of directors of the University of Virginia Club of Washington, and was elected and served as its president (1983-84).

He has ventured into the world of e-books with the publication of the second edition of Who Murdered Mom? along with his full-length two-act play, Arbitrating Murder. The play is based on the new edition of his book, which was re-edited by Darla Blaha, best known for writing about the chicken ranch that was basis of the Broadway play The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Another book by Swacker, Boardroom Conspiracies, has been paired with his play, the courtroom drama entitled Who Murdered the Chairman? “I think producers, publishers, and playwrights will consider this new avenue of e-commerce productive and an aid to casting directors,” Swacker notes. His e-books are available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other publishers.