In Memoriam |
Richard Mengler
of Corvallis died Sept. 14, 2001 at the age of 89. The 1952 UO law graduate
began his legal career in private practice and served as Corvallis city attorney
from 1952-54. He was the first Benton County district judge from 1955-59. He
was a member of the Oregon State College (now OSU) School of Business faculty
from 1960-64, and then he became circuit court judge of the 21st Judicial District
(covering Lincoln, Linn and Benton counties) from 1965-1982. Three times he
also served as justice pro tem of the Oregon Supreme Court.
Originally from
Nebraska, Judge Mengler grew up attending a one-room schoolhouse before going
to Nebraska State Teachers College, where he graduated in 1933. He taught school
for five years and then earned an M.A. from the University of Oregon in 1939.
He was the principal of Corvallis High School from 1939-41. He served in the
Army from 1942-46 and also worked for the Veterans Administration until 1949
before entering law school.
Survivors include
his wife, Mary, a daughter and a son.
Longtime Portland
attorney Jean M. King died Sept. 25, 2001 at age 81. She graduated from
Northwestern School of Law in 1953 and was admitted to the OSB that year. King
got her first job in the law in August 1955 in the newly created state welfare
recovery division of the state attorney general's office. She became an expert
in proving paternity in her efforts to enforce child support. After she left
the attorney general's office in 1964, she traveled around the world for seven
months by herself. She returned to Portland and entered sole practice, primarily
in the areas of divorce, wills and probate. She frequently gave talks regarding
will-making to non-legal organizations. She retired in 1989.
King was an active
member in several professional associations and community service organizations.
In law school she was a member of the Phi Delta Delta fraternity and the women's
law society. She was a member of Queen's Bench (now the Portland chapter of
Oregon Women Lawyers) since 1953 and was a past president. A long-time advocate
of women's rights, she worked on the Family Law Committee of the OSB in the
early 1970s and was one of three authors of the first bill to be presented to
the Oregon Legislature to institute no-fault divorce.
King was active
in several community service organizations throughout her life in addition to
her professional activities, including, for example, the Business and Professional
Women, a group which worked to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.
Former OSB president
and Portland attorney Robert A. Leedy Sr. died of a stroke Sept. 26,
2001. He was 92.
The 1925 Lincoln
High School graduate grew up in Portland and attended U.O. Law School, where
he graduated in 1933. He co-founded the Portland firm of Barzee, Leedy &
Keane in 1950. Then in 1971 he became a co-founding partner of a larger firm,
now known as Bullivant Houser Bailey. He retired from law practice in 1985.
Leedy served as
U.S. Commisioner for the U.S. District Court in Oregon from 1943-56. He was
a member of the Oregon Board of Bar Examiners and the Board of Governors. He
served as OSB president and president of the Western States Bar Conference from
1952-53.
His wife of 59
years, Annapauline Rea, predeceased him. Leedy is survived by two sons (including
OSB member R. Allan Leedy Jr.) and a sister, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Bar leader and
professionalism advocate Barrie J. Herbold died Oct. 19, 2001 at age
52. She was a member of the OSB Board of Governors from 1996-98, serving as
vice president in 1998.
Originally from
Bethesda, Maryland, she received her bachelor's degree from the University of
Pennsylvania and a law degree in 1977 from U.O. Law School. She became the first
woman litigator for the Portland firm of Dendorf, Spears, Lubersky, Campbell
& Bledsoe. In 1983 she left to found Markowitz & Herbold, which she
managed for the firm's first eight years. She continued to practice law until
her death from cancer.
Herbold was especially
concerned with issues of professionalism. (She co-authored the cover story of
the January 1999 OSB Bulletin with Chief Justice Wallace Carson Jr. entitled
'Why 'Kill All the Lawyers'?' and was the driving force in developing
the Bulletin's special issue on the meaning of professionalism.) She
was past chair of the OSB's Professionalism Task Force and was a founding member
of the Bench-Bar Commission on Professionalism.
Herbold was also
dedicated to working on behalf of those needing access to justice. She received
the Multnomah Bar's Professionalism Award. In 1999 she became the second Oregon
woman to be inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers. In 1993 she
received Multnomah County Legal Aid's Recognition Award for her more than 20
years of volunteer service to the Senior Law Project. She also received the
Justice Betty Roberts Award in 1998 by the Oregon Women Lawyers. She served
on the boards of many philanthropic organizations, most recently the Dougy Center.
She is survived
by her husband, Bill Gross, two sons, her parents and a sister.
The Bulletin
has also received notices of these deaths. Notices will appear in the next issue:
Joan Esther (Niemi) Johansen of Coos Bay, Oct. 30, 2001 of cancer, age
51.
Capt. Lars Toftemark of Columbus, Miss., Nov. 21, 2001 of cancer, age
33.