REMEMBERING TBW:  A CONSTRUCTIVE DISSENTER

Many Association members recall the special way in which our Bench and Bar marked the passing of a sister or brother lawyer before the advent of the Memorial Committee’s now annual group ceremony. Like the sounding of the vesper bell, the law office phone chain activated and on the designated morning lawyers streamed into the Court House for the special session convened by the Bench. The Association President and a surviving law partner would address the entire Court and the members present in order to pay a brief, solitary tribute to their colleague. The Court would then recess in honor of the lost lawyer. It was a fitting, important ritual long before fax machines, email and DCM, a time when our ranks were substantially thinner.

On February 20, 2003, our 51st President, T. Bayard Williams, Jr., died at the age of 90 as the result of complications from a fall. Because of the deep personal and professional connections Bayard maintained over 65 years as a County lawyer, it is appropriate that we “recess” this month’s column to remember such an extraordinary man.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1935 from the Johns Hopkins University, Bayard earned his law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1938. His early practice of law was interrupted by World War II during which he served in the Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps. After the war, Bayard resumed his law practice, serving as counsel and a member of the board of Patapsco Federal Savings and Loan in Dundalk, which was formed in 1910 by his father. At war’s end, Patapsco was down to about $92,000 in gross assets. With Bayard’s leadership and a strong board, it grew to $48 million in 1988, when Patapsco was named one of the 32 best savings banks in the country. He retired from the bank board in 1990, and became of counsel with Nolan, Plumhoff and Williams, Chartered from 1991 until 1995.

Always a strong advocate of education, Bayard served 22 years on the County’s Board of Education, beginning in 1956. During eight of those years, Bayard was Board President and worked to strengthen the curriculum with others such as H. Emslie Parks, Jr., who succeeded him as President. According to Lee, Board members would kid Bayard by claiming he had been appointed by Lord Calvert.

For nearly 30 years, Bayard enjoyed membership in The Dissenters Law Club. At last month’s meeting, Judge Chris Kahl, Bob Carney and many others toasted a man whose love of the law and willingness to voice constructive dissent never faded. According to Vaclav Havel, who until February was President of the Czech Republic, a dissenter is not one who embraces “an alternative political ideology but, rather [an individual] who insists on his own humanity, on thinking and doing things, even the smallest things, honestly.” Throughout his life, Bayard challenged the system and others to honestly do justice for all people.