In Memoriam: John W. Warner ’53, 5-Term U.S. Senator From Virginia
John W. Warner, a 1953 Law School graduate who served five terms in the U.S. Senate, died May 25. He was 94.
A Republican known for his appeal to moderates and for working across the aisle, Warner held the second-longest tenure of any Virginia senator.
He was a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War-experiences that shaped his career. Among his many roles, Warner served as secretary of the Navy, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and director of the U.S. Bicentennial celebration. In 2014, a nuclear-powered submarine was named in his honor, the USS John Warner.
Politicians of both parties grieved Warner's loss, including prominent Democrats.
"John Warner was a consummate statesman and a public servant who always put Virginia before politics; who put the nation's security before partisanship; who put the country's needs above his own," said Sen. Mark Warner (no relation), a former political opponent who now holds the seat he occupied.
Warner retired from the Senate in 2009, not long after participating in an extensive interview for UVA Lawyer magazine. In the article, Warner said his first year of Law School was "one of the most enlightening years" of his life. Up to that point, he had left school at 17 in January 1945 to enlist in the Navy in the waning months of World War II. He graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1949. While Warner was in the Law School, the Korean War began and he decided to reenlist, this time in the Marine Corps.
After serving as a ground officer with the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, he returned from active duty to resume his studies.
"It was a bit of a challenge to get my mind oriented toward the life of a student after having served in Korea," Warner said for the spring 2007 issue of the alumni magazine. "Had it not been for the faculty's warmth and interest in me, particularly Dean [F.D.G.] Ribble [1921], I wouldn't be here as a senator today."
Warner attributed some of his success to his professors, including Leslie Buckler, Charles Gregory and future Dean Hardy Cross Dillard ’27. "They were a tremendous force upon my life and recognized that I needed a little more inducement and support to buckle down."
Ribble helped Warner land an interview with Judge E. Barrett Prettyman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. (Prettyman's son was classmate E. Barrett Prettyman Jr. ’53.)
"I spent six or eight weeks memorizing every opinion heíd written in the nine years heíd been on the bench," he said for the UVA Lawyer interview. "When we met, I said to him, 'If I canít answer any question about any opinion that youíve ever written, chuck me out.'"
Warner got the job.
After the clerkship, in 1956, Warner served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, in the trial and appellate pisions. He married banking heiress Catherine Conover Mellon in 1957, and they had three children: Virginia, John W. (a 1986 UVA graduate) and Mary. He joined the law firm Hogan & Hartson in 1960, making partner in 1964, but left the firm in 1969 to assist Richard Nixon's presidential campaign.
"It was my introduction to politics," Warner told UVA Lawyer. "Nixon was looking for people who had the right talents. They wanted me to be an advance man, the individual who accompanies the candidate out into the state and looks after all the details of putting together an event. Fascinating job. Best job for a young person in politics."
When Nixon won, Warner was appointed undersecretary of the Navy, then secretary in 1972.
He and his wife divorced in 1973. Warner met actress Elizabeth Taylor when the British ambassador asked Warner to escort Taylor to an embassy party for Queen Elizabeth IIís visit, as part of the bicentennial events of 1976. The couple married that December (and later divorced, in 1982).
Warner won his first Senate election in 1978. His significant legislation included being a co-sponsor of America's Climate Security Act of 2007, which proposed a market-based "cap and trade" approach to dealing with the greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate change. He was also an important voice in deterring future torture and abuse in the war on terror, arguing that violations of the Geneva Conventions by the U.S. can only harm American prisoners in the future.
In addition to serving on the Armed Services Committee, he served on the Environment and Public Works Committee; the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Even before he entered elected office, Warner was focused on protecting the nation and its military through law and policy. His signature accomplishment as U.S. secretary of the Navy was executing the U.S.-Soviet Incidents at Sea agreement. The 1972 pact forged by Warner and his counterpart, Soviet Navy Commander-in-Chief Fleet Admiral Sergey Gorshkov, instituted provisions to avoid unintended naval engagements between the two superpowersóand to avoid escalation in the instance of encounter.
In 2008, Warner won the Thomas Jefferson Medal for Citizen Leadership.
In 2009, he auctioned off some of the items he collected from public life and donated the proceeds to a Law School scholarship fund.
"Sen. John Warner was a successful politician, but he was much more than that. He was a true public servant," said Professor John C. Jeffries Jr. ’73, who served as dean of the Law School from 2001-08. "He always put his country first. All Virginians — indeed all Americans — should mourn his passing."
Warner donated his official papers to the UVA Library, which were first made available in 2017.
Warner finished out his legal career at his original law firm — today called Hogan Lovells — as senior counsel. CEO Emeritus J. Warren Gorrell Jr. ’79 said Warner was a model for how to care about and serve others.
"I loved the man," Gorrell said. "He was a role model, mentor, a friend and a partner to so many. His grace, dignity and compassion were extraordinary. You knew when you were with him that you were in the presence of greatness — of someone who genuinely cared about other people. He defined service, and we all should be extremely grateful for his service to Virginia and our country. I sure feel that way about him for our firm."
According to Warner's longtime chief of staff, he died of heart failure at home with family members, including his wife, Jeanne Vander Myde.
—Eric Williamson
1952
The York County (Pa.) Bar Association featured a piece by Harry L. McNeal in the April York Legal Record as part of an effort that asks senior members to share their perspectives on the state of the practice of law, involvement in the bar association, and their lives and careers. The Legal Record wrote of McNeal, “At nearly 95 years of age, Harry has a lot of life lessons and musings to share, but we are capping him at 1100 words!”
1957
Janet R. Dugan is playing duplicate bridge online weekly with Janet Lauck Blakeman, and they invite their classmates to join them.
George W. Gowen died peacefully at home, surrounded by family, in New York City on March 14.
Born in Livorno, Italy, in 1929 to an American father and British mother, Gowen lived in London; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Princeton, N.J.; and Charlottesville. After graduating from the Law School, he resided in New York City, where he was a partner at Dunnington Bartholow & Miller until last year, as well as a principal at Fryer, Ross & Gowen for seven years.
After graduating from Princeton University, Gowen served in the U.S. Army, then joined the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon during the summer of 1953. While acting as a lookout in Wallowa National Forest, he was dispatched to his first fire in Hells Canyon, where he saw smokejumpers in action. The next summer he was stationed in Missoula, Mont., as a smokejumper.
After law school, where he met many of his closest friends, Gowen visited Charlottesville annually for the rest of his life and always cherished the Blue Ridge Mountains. His daughters and one grandchild also attended UVA, and he was a loyal and dedicated UVA sports fan, cheering the basketball team until a few days before he died.
In 1959, he married Marcia Fennelly, who predeceased him. He began to spend summers, weekends and many holidays in East Hampton, N.Y., where he enjoyed ocean swims with his wife, children, grandchildren and friends through age 90.
Gowen helped found and incorporate the Voltaire Society of America in 1996, and in 2001, as chairman, he wrote and helped produce a documentary titled “Voltaire & Jefferson: The Sage of Ferney & The Man from Monticello,” which aired on PBS.
For decades, Gowen was counsel to sports organizations. He started his long relationship with the U.S. Tennis Association in 1968 and, one year later, was appointed counsel. Over the course of 40 years in that role, he advised and counseled 18 presidents. Among other achievements, he was instrumental in building the National Tennis Center and moving the U.S. Open from Forest Hill’s West Side Tennis Club in 1978.
In addition, he helped to reintroduce tennis into the Olympic Games in 1988 and change many rules such as the tie-break, no-ad scoring and pro sets. Gowen was inducted into the Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006. He was counsel to the U.S. Olympic Committee, as well as a member of the International Court of Arbitrations for Sports from 2000-2011. He attended 12 Olympics.
He also chaired environmental and humane organizations. He was one of the longest-serving board members of Christodora, a not-for-profit founded in 1897 to provide environmental education, access to nature and leadership training to underserved New York City public school children. He joined the board in the late 1970s and served until his death.
In 1994, he was asked to join an Explorers Club Flag Trip, which became the first private, single-season transverse of the Northwest Passage, an Arctic experience that helped open the world’s eyes to climate change. After 16 years of involvement with the Explorers Club, in 2020 he was honored as a Sweeney Medalist, having previously received the President’s Award.
In 1970 he was appointed to the American Delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Commission. During the 25th anniversary year of the U.N. he commented, “Let us all rededicate ourselves to answering the cries of humanity throughout the world.”
He authored two books: “A Willingness of Heart: Volunteerism and the Not-For-Profit Organization in the American Society” and the memoir “Talk of Many Things: Law, Sports, Politics, Nature.”
Gowen’s legal practice, varied interests and volunteer service took him around the world. When asked what he loved most in life, he said, “What I do savor with pride and affection: my wife and home, our children, their husbands and the grandchildren. After these all else is footnotes.” He is survived by two daughters, four grandchildren and a brother.
1958
by Larry Grim, Class Secretary
@email
Ted Torrance, flesh frail, Thor of thoughts, and his long-suffering wife, Connie, not only sent their picture for this missive, they did not rule out joining JJ and Ben Phipps and my lady, Kathy O’Dea, and me for a vacation in St. Petersburg, Fla., Oct. 31-Nov. 3. Hobart McWhorter and his wife, Ellen, expressed frisky urges to attend.
So, don’t cry for me! This gig is fun! I’ve chatted with the lost and presumed dead, and read of dead who were awesome of deed.
George Aldhizer, after graduating from the University of Richmond in 1953, spent his next two years as a U.S. field secretary for his beloved fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta, calling on chapters and inspiring improvement. An early challenge was the UVA chapter — where I had just become treasurer and vice president. Although the Fiji Island parties were the best on the Grounds, expenses exceeded income greatly, no mortgage payments had been made for years, fourth-year students were half the house and the dues were to be decreased 50%. George counseled fund-raising and rushing. After visits, hat out, we got coin from dignitary alums Colgate Darden, Barron F. Black 1920, Armistead Dobie 1904 and others, and we rushed and doubled dues-payers — all thanks to George! “Rags to Riches,” I wrote in the Phi Gam mag!
I was delighted to see him in our entering law class. He went on to Omicron Delta Kappa, the Student Advisory Council and Moot Court, and became dean of Delta Theta Phi. He went on to Wharton and Aldhizer & Weaver as a business and estate lawyer, and he served on the Rockingham National Bank board, surviving mergers to make it to the Wachovia Bank board. This is a big deal, I say, as my Bucks County bank mergers left me behind when Wachovia gobbled.
He also served as Rockingham County attorney. He provided pro bono service to various veterans and charitable organizations. He raised Angus cattle on his Harrisonburg farm and was a president of the Virginia Angus Association. George died Sept. 19, 2015, predeceased by his wife Lo Byerly, but survived by a son, two daughters and seven grandchildren. He was loyal to Phi Gamma Delta to the end, serving the national organization in various high capacities. He was a true Virginia Gentleman! Other confessed Phi Gams in our class: Dave Hobson, Steve Laing, Fred Pfirrmann, Sam Taylor, Lowell Weicker and Howard Whitaker. Any other fraternity beat eight members in our class?
Bill Bunting, a suite mate in law dorms, is still practicing law at 245 Nassau St., Princeton, N.J., in the same office where our Perkasie, Pa., law firm leased from him a room or two to try to start a Princeton branch office. That venture failed quickly, but it was fun to meet with Bill and chat by phone. Later, I needed his help to remove a lawyer as executor of a N.J. estate for nonfeasance and replace him with his brother. The brothers were my first cousins. Bill handled the matter and settled the estate swiftly and well.
Bill told me in a most pleasant phone conversation that he is a COVID survivor, after a month of misery. The pretty Canadian bride he showed off at our 2018 class reunion is still with him. His celebrity client Svetlana Stalin, Joseph’s only daughter — a very sad person, he says, who was back and forth between London and Princeton — is now dead [as of 2011]. Bill was a trial judge for many years, has “lots of money and reads the Wall Street Journal.”
David Carter says: “All’s quiet on the English front but will be in touch should that change.”
The lovely Lutheran minister had finished a fine graveside service for my departed cousin, and I had just commended her for it when my phone rang. I apologized and scurried a dozen yards away and perched on a tombstone to take a call from the Honorable John Edward Clarkson, who wanted to thank me for encouraging our classmates to consider a rendezvous.
He suggested that I visit him in Ponte Vedra, Fla., where he loves retirement, because I’d expressed a desire to see a bit of Florida as COVID travel worries lessen. John was always a leader, as a DKE (Delta Kappa Epsilon) from Virginia Beach in college, to chairman of our second-year class. He was also on the UVA Student Council (1956), Law Weekly, Student Legal Forum, etc., and went on to become a judge in Virginia. Always the Virginia gentleman. I hope to take up his offer as I have kin nearby.
Len Cooper, 93, confines exercise to walking now but was a track letterman in high school and at Rutgers, where he ran in the Penn Relays and anchored the victorious 4-x-400 relay team. Vickie, his wife, gets his support for her volunteering at Day’s End Farm Horse Rescue in Lisbon, Md. She sent a heartwarming YouTube video of the saving of Ziporah, a horse near death being brought back to zestful life.
Bob Dorsey reports: “health fine, except old and fragile. I recall taking my meals the first year in the same house as the Brokaws. They enjoyed teaching me my social deficiencies.”
Phil Elliott sent a long, cheery email too late for the spring Class Notes, saying his “inner Peter Pan has not grown up.” He entered UVA Law’s Class of ’54, ran out of money during his first year and joined the Navy. Three days after completing Officer Candidate School, he married his Roanoke College sweetheart, Joyce Orr. Their only child, Kathleen, was born at Bethesda Naval Hospital, and in 1956 Phil reentered law school in our class. He passed the Virginia and Florida bar exams; worked at Parkinson & Sessions, a two-partner firm, then spent three years as a bank trust officer. He then opened his own firm, enlarged to four partners; rented office space to his good friend and classmate, Bill Johnson; and served as Daytona Beach City prosecutor, judge of Volusia County Small Claims Court, president of the Florida Association of Small Claims Judges and as attorney for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for more than 30 years. With a small group of partners, he developed condominiums, acquiring nearly a mile of oceanfront-riverfront land later sold to the state as a park. He still has a limited law practice, mainly trusts and estates. He lost his wife in 2009, but his daughter lives just a mile from his oceanfront home. Mottos: “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” and “Cheer Up, We’ll All Be Dead Soon.” At our age, the second is not so funny!
Martin Flanagan sends sad news of the passing of his wife of 66 years, Mary deSaussure Flanagan, at home in West Palm Beach, Fla. A member of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina, she descended from Henry Wm deSaussure, appointed by President George Washington as the second director of the U.S. Mint; he sponsored legislation leading to founding of the University of South Carolina. She married Martin shortly after graduating from Furman University. Then, she earned her “Ph T” from the Law School. (I did not recognize and could not find “Ph T,” so I asked Martin. He replied: “Obviously as a bachelor, in Law School, I wouldn’t know law wives’ speak; it’s: “Putting hubby Through.” In gratitude, he gave her a silver cup with that engraved upon it.) She is survived by Martin, four children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She and Martin loved to travel, often doing home exchanges a month at a time in Ireland, England, France, Germany, Austria and elsewhere.
I remember Oscar Gottscho as having a serious intensity even working on the Libel Show. Born in Munich, Germany, he came to the U.S. in 1938, and his family settled in D.C., where he went to the famed Sidwell Friends School. He then attended Harvard, after which he was commissioned an officer in the Army and served in Germany as commander of a battalion responsible for a 289 mm gun. In our class he focused on tax and then clerked for Judge J. Gregory Bruce of the U.S. Tax Court. He served in the Office of Tax Counsel at the Treasury Department and was vice president-tax counsel at Bankers Trust in New York City. A passionate environmentalist, Oscar served as trustee of the Association for Protection of Adirondacks and the Upper Raritan Watershed Association. He belonged to several clubs, including Metropolitan in D.C. and Somerset Hills Country Club. He married Margaret Farrelly, who predeceased him. He died Sept. 23, 2014, survived by four children.
It’s always fun to chat with Bill Griesar, and this time I could offer him a Zoom program on clocks, his hobby, from the Philadelphia Club. He said he liked it. (His email is billclock@aol.com.)
On the list of our classmates, George Harris’ name appeared with no contact info. Fortunately, a list from the 2018 reunion had a phone number. I called, and Suzanne, his wife of more than 50 years, answered sweetly and fetched my golf partner in a series of home ’n away matches after Law School graduation. He was his old droll self. At least four decades had passed since our last talk, but we picked up as if the interval was two weeks. He practiced with a law firm for many years in New Jersey but was lured to Arizona to help a friend set up Pharos Foundation. The friend died suddenly, and George became chairman and runs the $47 million scholarship-granting fund. Google “Pharos leadership” and you’ll be surprised at the dazzling career George had! We bragged about our successful kids and our multiple dwellings. In addition to building a house in Paradise Valley, Ariz., he has a house in Wilson (Jackson Hole), Wyo., across the street from Liz Cheney’s sister, Mary. In law school he introduced me to bullshots (bouillon and vodka). I hope to stir up a few more memories with him. You can stir him up at grogersh@msn.com.
The list of classmates gives Doug Mackall’s Fairfax address, but he royally entertained us at the 2018 reunion in a condo overlooking Farmington Country Club. I forgot exactly where, so I asked; he responded: “If any classmates are in Charlottesville, please call me … and have a drink, no two or more drinks ….”
Bill Shands felt this message so important he sent it IN CAPS to each of my three addresses:
“And for the record, after finals and before law school graduation, I married Lynneth (who has put up with me some 63 years, and we are the parents of two children who have presented us with six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren). I first joined a local law firm where I spent three years. Then I joined the legal staff of the Life Insurance Company of Virginia, where I spent 27 years, ending up as senior vice president and general counsel. During that time my company went through five changes of ownership (and I reported to three different presidents). After the last one, the president of the newest owner decided I needed a change. I was happy to agree and left the company and joined another local law firm as counsel. Spent 10 years there until deciding to retire. We now live in a senior living ‘resort’ outside of Richmond.”
Gerry Sigal was born in Bethlehem, Pa., and attended Moravian Academy and Lafayette, where he knew a slew of my cousins. So we became friends in law school and visited each other in Pennsylvania. We were moot court partners. The case everyone argued was an appeal from a New York court. Gerry went to the court, pulled transcripts and peppered our brief with facts not appearing in the opinion all others argued from. The judges were not impressed, and we lost in the first round. He started practice in New York but moved to Reading, Berks County, from 1966 to 2008, where he served a term as associate county solicitor. Active in many civic causes, he was a founder of Tri-County Legal Services, which now serves 18 counties in Pennsylvania. He served on boards of the Reading Regional Airport Authority and Berks County Municipal Authority. He was president of the Reading Public Library and their foundation. He was treasurer of the Reform Congregation Oheb Sholom. He retired to Ocracoke Island, N.C., where he chaired the Ocracoke Board of Adjustment and represented Ocracoke on the regional library board. We spoke by phone when my daughter and son were accepted at UVA (she graduated from UVA, son from the University of Pennsylvania), but he one-upped me: his two sons won Jefferson Scholarships (full ride), then graduated from UVA. Like Mr. J, he died on the fourth of July (2010).
Tom Snyder was a quiet guy who the Barrister says graduated from UVA College in ’56, but was in our class, made Phi Delta Phi and worked on the Libel Show, where I got to know him. After law school he practiced in Pittsburgh. He was a 50-year member of the Allegheny County Bar Association. I ran across him at a bar event, and we corresponded on a matter I had out there. He was a partner in Ruffin Hazlett Snyder Brown & Stabile, and later Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, concentrating on industrial, economic, and real estate development and municipal law. He was solicitor for Indiana Township. A lifelong “Chautauquan,” he enjoyed summers of golf, concerts and lectures in Chautauqua, N.Y. He died Oct. 4, 2011, survived by his wife, Margaret, and a son, granddaughters and stepchildren.
Another quiet guy was Dick Swartling, who spent almost all his life in New Martinsville, W.Va. He was 10 days younger than me. After Yale, he joined our class, and practiced in his hometown before retiring to spend his last 10 years in Venice, Fla. He died April 6, 2006, survived by a daughter, two sons and seven grandchildren.
Karl Velde and his wife, Sandra, are now “out and about,” as they attended the commissioning ceremony of Nantucket Yacht Club for their first large party since March of 2020.
Another Florida transplant from a frigid climate was Howard Whitaker, who graduated from Needham (Mass.) High School in 1948, and got a degree in English from Dartmouth in 1952. He then joined the armed forces, becoming an officer and a translator of Russian. After Law Review and Libel Show came the Big Apple: working on public finance with Mitchell, Petty, Shetterly & Mitchel, where he moved the firm to the forefront and its evolution to Brown & Wood. He helped establish its office in San Francisco, but a yen took him, from 1988 to 1998, to a partnership at the Miami firm of Greenberg Traurig. He was hardly happier than during his service to Dade County as assistant county attorney. He vowed to work “as long as they will let me,” and work he did on many public finance projects, creating parks, hospitals, municipal buildings, universities, bridges and airports. As he injected wry humor into the Libel Show, he would draw cartoons that injected levity to explain finance projects. He was married twice, producing a son and daughter with his first wife, who predeceased him. He died Aug. 13, 2004, survived by his second wife and her children. He was an avid golfer and one of most respected public finance lawyers in the country.
Henry Williams consoled me on my class secretary job: he did eight years as secretary of Dartmouth, Class of ’52, saying: “I would’ve stayed but the leaders wanted more dignity. I was running out of supplies anyway.” His summer address is a boat named Walter Mitty, which he sails and races on the Great Lakes and elsewhere. “She (the boat) is a Canadian built sloop with many miles beneath the keel.” He invited me to “take a spin” with him. He sent his Great Lakes Cruising Club card, which listed him as “Port Captain, Rochester, N.Y.” Henry has a new wife, Barbara Dimmick, from Bethlehem, Pa., who helps him correspond at bdimmick@rochester.rr.com. He has retired finally from practicing law, though he gives advice at cocktail parties. His old contact info is obsolete except for his home address.
Finally: Ellen C. Walker, director of Alumni Relations with the Law School Foundation, explained why I — and maybe you — were unable to join virtual sessions at the UVA Law Alumni Virtual Reunions Weekend this spring: Those using the Safari browser could not do so, as it blocked the pop-up that opened the Zoom sessions.
Thanks for your help! More, please!
1959
Richard E. Dixon of Clifton, Va., died July 12. Dixon served his country in the U.S. Marine Corps and was a graduate of Duke University and the Law School. He practiced law in Northern Virginia for many years, beginning in Arlington, and was a principal in several Fairfax firms: Dixon & Horan, Dixon & Smith, and, finally, managing partner of Dixon, Smith & Stahl. Dixon was a founding member of the construction law and public contracts section of the Virginia State Bar and served as its first chairman, beginning in 1979. He was a frequent speaker at continuing legal education programs, published numerous articles on construction law and was a published author on American history. After retirement from active practice, Dixon also served as an arbitrator of commercial and construction disputes and as president of the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society. His firm reports he was well-respected by his friends, colleagues and clients. Dixon is survived by his wife, Trudy, and four children and nine grandchildren.
1960
Robert S. Bersch retired at the age of 85, after 60 years of practice, at the end of 2020.
A former Virginia attorney general who reformed the office, Andrew P. Miller, 88, died in his Washington, D.C., home July 2. Miller was born in Fairfax, Va., the son of Francis Pickens and Helen (Hill) Miller.
Miller attended St. Albans School, graduated from Deerfield Academy in 1950, graduated from Princeton University in 1954 and then served as a U.S. Army lieutenant in the artillery pision during the Korean War, from 1955-57. After the war, he enrolled at the Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Virginia Law Review, graduated first in his class and was inducted as a member of the Order of the Coif.
After graduating, Miller practiced with Penn, Stuart & Stuart, and later Penn, Stuart & Miller in Abingdon, Va. In 1969, he was elected as Virginia’s attorney general and served from 1970-77. He received 71% of the vote when reelected in 1973, which remains the most of any candidate for the state’s three top offices in the modern era.
Miller created a modern attorney general’s office model that his successors have followed and built upon, according to The Roanoke Times. “Before Miller, state agencies in need of legal counsel hired outside law firms. Miller insisted they be represented by state lawyers, which increased his office’s budget but he argued saved the state money overall.”
He also oversaw other changes in his office that were considered progressive for the time period.
“His merit-based hiring practices created persity when most attorneys general offices were staffed primarily by white males,” his obituary states.
In 1976, he was awarded the Wyman Memorial Award, given to an “Outstanding American Attorney General.” Miller resigned as attorney general in January 1977 to run for governor. Unsuccessful in his bid, he practiced law in Richmond with Mays, Valentine, Davenport & Moore.
After running for the U.S. Senate in 1978 and losing to John Warner ’53, he left Richmond and embarked upon a practice in Washington, D.C., representing major energy companies before state attorneys general.
In 1990, Miller married Penelope Farthing. They raised five children. Throughout his career, Miller was active in the National Association of Attorneys General, the Conference of Western Attorneys General, the Democratic Attorneys General Association, and the Republican Attorneys General Association. Miller was selected as chairman of the Southern Conference of Attorneys General, chairman of the NAAG Antitrust Committee, and a member of the NAAG Executive Committee. He served three years as vice chair of the Virginia Board of Corrections. He established the John Marshall Foundation and was its first president. Miller also practiced law in Washington, D.C., with the firms Dickstein Shapiro, Powell Goldstein, and Hunton & Williams. “He leaves behind dear friends, many of whom were comrades in arms in legal battles during his 60+ years of practice,” his family states in his obituary.
He is survived by Julia Thomas and Elise Miller, his daughters with the late Doris Brown. He was preceded in death by their son, Pickens Miller, and by his brother, Robert Day Miller. He leaves his wife of 30 years, Penelope Farthing, and twins Winfield and Lucia.
Bobby Swanson Payne, 87, died peacefully at home surrounded by family on June 15.
Born in Louisa, Va., he attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Richmond, where he graduated valedictorian of his class and was ranked 10th nationally in junior tennis. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a tennis scholarship. While there, he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and Navy ROTC.
After graduating, Payne served in the Navy as an ensign at Fort Campbell Air Force Base in Kentucky. During his time in the service, he had the opportunity to play on the all-Navy tennis team, where he went on to win the singles and doubles championship in Newport, R.I. In the summer after his discharge and before entering the Law School, he met Denice, or “Denny,” his wife of nearly 63 years. He became the justice of the Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity and passed the Virginia bar exam before his graduation.
The couple moved to Connecticut in 1961, where he joined the law firm Pinney Hull, which eventually became Pinney Payne. Payne was recognized as one of the top real estate attorneys in the state for over 40 years. He was a major contributor to the growth of the Danbury area, and a mentor to a generation of Danbury attorneys. He was a humble and soft-spoken Southern gentleman, who was respected by all who knew him, according to his family.
Payne started as a tennis player in Richmond. He played at Byrd Park under the coaching of Sam Woods. He was a nine-time Virginia state champion, three-time Richmond City Champion and was inducted in the Richmond Tennis Hall of Fame. Upon his arrival in Connecticut, Payne became a golfer and was a longtime member of Ridgewood Country Club. He was also a longtime member of Fort Lauderdale Country Club, where he was a perennial participant in the senior championships.
Payne served on several boards in the area but was particularly proud of being a founding board member of the Connecticut Golf Foundation, which initiated the First Tee of Connecticut.
1962
Alan A. Green, 84, of Centerville, Mass., and Naples, Fla., died June 18, after a brief illness.
Born in Hartford, Conn., and raised in New Britain, Green attended Fordham University, where he served as freshman class treasurer and class delegate for senate each year, graduating with a bachelor’s in sociology in 1959.
Green entered the Law School and joined Phi Delta Phi honors fraternity, participated in the Libel Show each year and became a member of the Virginia Law Review. He helped form a criminal law research organization and was editor of the Virginia Legal Reading Guide. After he graduated, he had many memorable reunions with cherished classmates.
Green practiced law in New Britain with his partner-friend, William Mangan Jr. The two shared a boat on the Connecticut River and an appreciation for jazz. A lifelong Democrat, Green was engaged in local and state politics. He was campaign manager for Arthur Powers, first selectman of Berlin, and worked for Joe Duffy for Senate in 1968. He headed the Berlin Youth Council and was twice elected to the Board of Education. He was the attorney for St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, and a member of Church Council and Knights of Columbus. He was active in both the New Britain Bar Association and the Hartford County Bar Association. He became active in the anti-Vietnam war movement and became vice chairman of Caucus of Connecticut Democrats.
Green later practiced law in Hyannis, Mass. He was an assistant district attorney working in the Barnstable Courts for seven years. He represented the townships of Yarmouth, Mashpee and Sandwich. After a year, he formed a partnership with Edwin Mycock and Bernard Kilroy that became known as Mycock, Kilroy, Green and McLaughlin. From his office on the corner of East Main and School streets, he practiced general litigation-oriented law and, for 15 years, was town councilmember for the township of Sandwich.
Green was active in the Barnstable County Bar Association, first as secretary and member of the Executive Committee, and then as president. He organized and led for a number of years the Family Law Committee and its Lawyer of the Day program, set up for people drawn to the probate court but unable to afford legal representation.
In the fall of 1996, Green moved with his wife, Sherry, to Mesquite, Nev., to manage a group of properties for his father-in-law, including Si Redd’s Oasis Hotel Resort Casino and Mesquite Vistas Land Development Co., which included two golf courses, a health club, 15 neighborhood subdivisions, a commercial shopping center and, later, a multiplex movie theater. The hotel and related properties were sold in 2001.
In 2004, Green bought a second home in Naples. In 2008, Green and Sherry enjoyed their “snowbird” lifestyle until Sherry was taken by Alzheimer’s in 2015.
Known as “Aldo” to many, Green enjoyed “La Vita Bella.” Family members report he had a hearty voice and loved loud singing and telling jokes. For details on private services on Cape Cod and, later in the year, in Naples, contact @email.
In Memoriam: William F. Clinger Jr. ’65, 9-Term Congressman
Former U.S. Rep. William F. “Bill” Clinger Jr. ’65, of Naples, Fla., and Chautauqua, N.Y., passed away on May 28.
The Washington Post remembered Clinger, a Republican who represented Pennsylvania’s 5th and 23rd districts, as someone who fought to reform unfunded mandates — federal requirements on states that weren’t backed with federal funding — as chair of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.
He wasn’t a fierce partisan by nature. “For much of his time in office, the tall, lanky, mild-mannered lawmaker forged relationships with many in the Democratic majority,” according to the Post.
However, among the committee’s investigations was “Travelgate,” which became a partisan scandal. The Clinton administration had fired seven long-serving employees of the White House Travel Office — allegedly to give the jobs to friends of the president and first lady Hillary Clinton. Although five of the seven employees were reinstated in government jobs, no charges of wrongdoing stuck.
Born on April 4, 1929, in Warren, Pa., Clinger graduated from the Hill School in Pottstown and then earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Johns Hopkins University in 1951. That year, he also married Julia “Judy” Whitla, who predeceased him in 2016.
Clinger served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1951-55 before returning to Warren, where he was an advertising executive at the New Process Co. until 1962. During these years, he and his wife started their family and, as a young father, Clinger entered the Law School, where he would join the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review.
The family returned to Warren, where Clinger was in private practice for 12 years at Harper, Clinger, Eberly & Marti. He was active in his community during those years, as a delegate to the 1968 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention and the 1972 Republican National Convention. In 1975, President Gerald Ford appointed Clinger to serve as chief counsel of the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration.
Following Ford’s defeat in the 1976 election, Clinger returned to Warren and launched a long shot bid to unseat an incumbent Democratic member of Congress in the 1978 midterm election. He won that race and was subsequently reelected eight times by the voters in his Northwestern Pennsylvania congressional district, usually by overwhelming margins. During his 18 years in Congress, as the Post details, he earned a reputation as an effective legislator and principled consensus-builder who was highly respected on both sides of the political aisle.
In 1995, after Republicans captured control of the House for the first time in over 40 years, Clinger’s colleagues chose him to chair the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. In addition to the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995, he co-authored landmark Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 to reform the federal government’s procurement process. As a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where he served as vice chairman in the 104th Congress, Clinger was an advocate for investments in infrastructure and other capital improvements to better the lives of the residents in his largely rural district.
Upon retirement from Congress in 1997, Clinger joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins as a senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies, having received the university’s Harold Seidman Distinguished Service Award in 1996. In 1997, he and his wife spent a semester at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where he was a fellow at the Institute of Politics.
Clinger was a lifelong summer resident of the Chautauqua Institution. He served on its board of trustees after his retirement from Congress, including two terms as chairman. In recognition of his many contributions, the institution endowed an ongoing lectureship in his and his wife’s honor at the conclusion of his service on the board.
—Eric Williamson
1965
James P. Jones has taken senior status as a U.S. District Court judge on the 25th anniversary of his becoming a federal judge.
H. Anthony “Tony” Medley was admitted to the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry, which was founded as “The Thousand.” ISPE is the oldest 99.9% society in the world. The criterion for admission is a score on any standard psychometric test of intelligence reflecting ability at the 99.9 percentile.
1967
Paul R. Verkuil was the subject of a tribute in the Yale Journal on Regulation in May. As former chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States, Verkuil is hailed as one of the preeminent American regulatory scholars. “His unflagging dedication to public service is a model to all those who spend time in government at any level, and his enormous contributions to the administrative law field will continue to shape regulatory policy for generations to come,” wrote ACUS Research Director Reeve T. Bull.
1968
J. William Lewis published his debut novel, “The Essence of Nathan Biddle,” in June. Lewis lives in Alabama and serves as executive officer of his family’s investment company, Seaman Capital, and related companies.
1969
Leland C. “Lee” Selby retired after 51 years of practice. Selby was of counsel with Whitman Breed, previously Smith & Grant, in Greenwich, Conn. Selby is a fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel and has served on the ethics committee and the executive committee of the Estates and Probate Section of the Connecticut Bar Association. He served on numerous local town boards including the Greenwich Retirement System, United Way of Greenwich (of which he served as president), the Greenwich Foundation for Community Gifts (of which he served as chairman) and the Stamford Center for the Arts.
