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WHEREAS, George F. Douglas, Jr., born in Philadelphia, December 7, 1925,
admitted to the Bar in 1950, and to the Bar of Cumberiand County on the 10th day of
August, 1954, and to the Bars of all the Federal District Courts of Pennsylvania, the 3rd
Circuit Court as well as the U.S, Supreme Court, died at the age of 69 on the 1st day of
March, 1995; and
WHEREAS, he was a graduate of Dickinson College with a BA degree and of
Dickinson School of Law with a J.D, degree, by which he was, in 1989, awarded its
Alumni of the Year Award; and
WHEREAS, he began his practice of law in Carlisle in the office of the late John
D. Faller, Jr.; later with his wife, Sylvia H, Rambo, now Chief Judge of the U,S. District
Court of the Middle District of Pennsylvania; and on his death, with his two sons in the
firm of Douglas, Douglas & Douglas; and
WHEREAS, he served his profession with remarkable and exceptional distinction;
as a member of the American Bar Association; the Pennsylvania Bar Association, In which
he served for two years as Chairman of the Civil Litigation Section; and since 1981, as
Editor of that Section's Newsletter, a tool of immeasurable value to Civil Trial Lawyers In
Pennsylvania; as well as the Cumberland County Bar Association, of which he was a past-
president; and
WHEREAS, he was a member of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association and
of Its board from 1970 to 1983; the American Association of Trial Lawyers of America; and
the Pennsyivania Defense Institute; the Defense Research and Trial Lawyers Association;
Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers; Advocate, American Board of Trial Advocates;
Certified as a Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy; he served on
the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for six years; edited
Products L1abllltv In Pennsvlvanla: A 20 vear PersDective for the Pennsylvania Trial
Lawyers Association; and in the 1995,96 edition of Best Trial Lawyers In America was
rated as the Best Attorney for personal injury litigation in Pennsylvania; and
WHEREAS, those of us who met in contest with George knew him as most
thorough, knowledgeable and well prepared; the kind of Lawyer most admired; one who
epitomized the best of us, demonstrating that skill and competence could be carried out
with courtesy, dignity and professionalism; and
WHEREAS, he served his community in many ways: on the Jaycees; the Chamber
of Commerce; and most notably, as a member and President of the Carlisle Area School
Board; and
.'IN ,THE COURT OF COMnO~l PLEAS
CUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNA.
NO. 95 - '~Ia
IN RE:
RESOLUTION OF RESPECT
ON THE DEATH OF
GEORGE F. DOUGLAS, JR.
ORDER OF COURT
RESOLUTION
FLOWER, MORGENTHAL,
FLOWER & LINDSAY
A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
11 EAST HIGH STREET
CARLISLE, PENNSYLVANIA 17013
(Xl JAMES D. FLOWER 06272
( ) ROGER M. MORGENTHAL 17143
( ) JAMES D. FLOWER, JR. 27742
( ) CAROL J. LINDSAY 44693
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1 Tuesday, March 7th, 1995
2 1:00 p.m.
3
4 (Whereupon, the memorial service for George
5 F. Douglas, Jr., Esquire, appears as follows:)
6 MR. DUFFIE: I'd like to call this session of
7 the Cumberland county Bar Association to order and request
8 Mr. James Flower to read the Resolution.
9 MR. FLOWER: Mr. President, I move the
10 following Resolution:
11 WHEREAS, George F. Douglas, Jr., born in
12 Philadelphia December 7, 1925, admitted to the Bar in 1950
13 and to the Bar of Cumberland County on the lOth day of
14 August, 1954, and to the Bars of all the Federal District
15 Courts of Pennsylvania, the Third Circuit Court, as well as
16 the United States Supreme Court, died at the age of
17 sixty-nine on the 1st day of March, 1995; and
18 WHEREAS, he was a graduate of Dickinson College
19 with a BA degree and of Dickinson School of Law with a J.D.
20 degree, by which he was, in 1989, awarded its Alumni of the
21 Year Award; and
22 WHEREAS, he began his practice of law in Carlisle
23 in the office of the late John D. Faller, Jr.; later with
24 his wife, sylvia H. Rambo, now Chief Judge of the U.S.
25 District Court of the Middle District of Pennsylvania; and
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1 on his death with his two sons in the firm of Douglas,
2 Douglas & Douglas; and
3 WHEREAS, he served his profession with remarkable
4 and exceptional distinction as a member of the American Bar
5 Association; the Pennsylvania Bar Association, in which he
6 served for two years as Chairman of the civil Litigation
7 section and since 1981 as editor of that section's
8 newsletter, a tool of immeasurable value to civil trial
9 lawyers in Pennsylvania; as well as the Cumberland County
10 Bar Association, of which he was a past president; and
11 WHEREAS, he was a member of the Pennsylvania Trial
12 Lawyers Association and of its boar.d from 1970 to 1983; the
13 American Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the
14 Pennsylvania Defense Institute; the Defense Research and
15 Trial Lawyers Association; Fellow, American College of Trial
16 Lawyers; Advocate, American Board of Trial Advocates;
17 certified as a civil trial advocate by the National Board of
18 Trial Advocacy.
19 He served on the disciplinary board of the Supreme
20 Court of Pennsylvania for six years; edited Products
21 Liabilitv in pennsvlvania: A 20 vear persoective for the
22 Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association; and in the 1995-96
23 edition of Best Trial Lawvers in America was rated as the
24 Best Attorney for personal injury litigation in
25 Pennsylvania; and
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1 WHEREAS, those of us who met in contest with
2 George knew him as most thorough, knowledgeable, and
3 well-prepared; the kind of lawyer most admired; one who
4 epitomized the best of us, demonstrating that skill and
5 competence could be carried out with courtesy, dignity, and
6 professionalism; and
7 WHEREAS, he served his community in many ways: on
8 the Jaycees, the Chamber of Commerce, and most notably as a
9 member and President of the Carlisle Area School Board; and
10 WHEREAS, he served his nation as a Marine, both in
11 World War II and in Korea, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel;
12 and
13 WHEREAS, we will, for many years to come, remember
14 his unfailing civility and fairness to opposing counsel; the
15 ease and cheerfulness with which he greeted and spoke to
16 each of us; the Christmas parties at his law office; his
17 participation at Bar picnics in volleyball games and higher
18 stake poker games; the chats; his sense of humor and innate
19 courtesy; one who had only the best to say of others and who
20 genuinely deserved the respect and fondness of all who knew
21 him.
22 NOW THEREFORE, be it resolved by the Cumberland
23 County Bar Association that: the Association, for itself
24 and its individual members, express by this means its sense
25 of loss and their deep sorrow at his death, and sympathy for
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1 his wife and family, and direct that a copy of this
2 Resolution be made a part of the minutes of this memorial
3 meeting of this Association this 7th day of March, 1995, and
4 that the Resolution be submitted to the Court for approval
5 for filing in the office of the Prothonotary of the Court of
6 Common Pleas of Cumberland County to be there copied in full
7 on a separate page of the appearance docket and that copies
8 be given to his wife and children. I so move.
9 MR. DUFFIE: Without objection the Resolution
10 presented is adopted and the floor is open for any member of
11 the Bar to comment.
12 PRESIDENT JUDGE SHEELV: Mr. President, my
13 first recollection of George in a professional manner was
14 back in November of 1961 when Judge Shughart appointed
15 George and myself to represent a man by the name of Rafael
16 Collazo who was charged with murder in a migrant labor camp.
17 And just to show you how things proceeded in those
18 days, we were appointed in November of 1961. The trial was
19 held in December of 1961, and he was found guilty of
20 voluntary manslaughter. Motions for new trial were decided
21 by Judge Shughart in January of 1962.
22 We appealed the case to the Supreme Court. They
23 rendered their decision in June of 1962 affirming the
24 rulings of Judge Shughart, and to top it all off I can
25 remember George wrote a letter to Judge Shughart about our
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1 counsel fees, and we were both finally awarded the great sum
2 of $300.00 each for representation of Mr. Collazo.
3 Obviously George was the lead attorney, and I was pretty
4 much along to assist him.
5 George, after that, I don't think he did too many
6 criminal trials after the Collazo murder case, but I do
7 remember when I was first elected to the bench that I didn't
8 have very much experience in civil trials, and I was always
9 so pleased when I had that caliber of an attorney
10 representing one of the parties because not only did he do
11 that well, but George was always a lot of help to me in
12 making sure that I got the issue straight in my charge to
13 the jury. I think we all remember George along those lines.
14 I remembered something that was said yesterday in
15 the funeral service that I think really tells us what type
16 of a man George was. One of the speakers yesterday at the
17 funeral service said that George gave three points of advice
18 to Bill and George, and they were: always be respectful,
19 always tell the truth, and always know the law. I think
20 that's really what George Douglas was, the type of man he
21 was.
22 MR. SLIKE: Mr. president, our friends, I've
23 known George Douglas also a long time. I had the good
24 fortune of being his brother, fraternity brother, when I
25 entered Dickinson College in 1947.
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1 As I drove up here today, I thought to myself of
2 the great stories from the Cumberland County Bar. There
3 were many fine things said about George and deservedly so.
4 Two things stand out in my mind. One is his
5 willingness to always share his infinite knowledge of the
6 law with other members of the Bar. You could ask George a
7 question about trial practice or procedure, and he was
8 always glad to answer you. You never had any hesitation
9 about asking him for help.
10 Another thing on the lighter side is he was a
11 wonderful storyteller. Over the years he always, with his
12 good nature, would tell all kinds of tales of past and
13 present. One that stuck in my mind since about 1955 to 1956
14 was when he was in the Marines and was in California and was
15 transporting a dog from one area in California to another
16 for the owner, the dog being one to only eat steak. George
17 said by the end of that trip we taught that dog to eat
18 hamburger. Thank you.
19 JUDGE HOFFER: Mr. President, pardon me if I
20 appear to be a little nervous. It's like I feel I have a
21 flush, I know George has a full house, and it's my turn to
22 bet.
23 As usual, Shakespeare said it best. In Love's
24 Labour's Lost, Moth says to Armado, "You are a gentleman and
25 a gamester, sir." I can easily picture George giving the
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1 same answer as Armado when he replied, "I confess to both,
2 sir. They are both the varnish of a complete man."
3 When I think of George, the word gentleman comes
4 to mind. He is the last of that breed of the era when Judge
5 Rambo and Ted Bayley and I started out. He was the lawyer
6 you went to watch in the courtroom when you wanted to learn
7 how to try a case.
8 Of course, everyone has their favorite Douglas
9 case. Mine happens to be Frick versus stevens. It is the
10 story of a daughter who worshipped her deceased father and
11 who could not tolerate the truth about him to be put into
12 the written word. A daughter who won't believe that her
13 father was responsible for the Homestead steel strike
14 Massacre of 1892.
15 The daughter, of course, was Helen Clay Frick.
16 The father was Henry Clay Frick, coke-fuel baron of
17 Pittsburgh in the 1890's. The Defendant was Sylvester K.
18 stevens, a prominent Pennsylvania historian and author.
19 At the time of the suit, Helen Clay Frick was an
20 imperious dowager in her 80's. She took over a wing of the
21 Embers for the duration of the trial. Each day she came to
22 court with a suite of limousines, accompanied by what seemed
23 like fifty of the brightest lawyers from that Pittsburgh
24 bastion, Buchanon, Ingersoll, and six other names I can't
25 remember anymore.
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1 It is no exaggeration to say that there were more
2 lawyers at the Frick table in Clint Weidner's courtroom than
3 there are combined in a certain courtroom on the West Coast
4 today.
5 Professor stevens was represented by the small
6 firm of Douglas and Rambo. It was David versus Goliath
7 again, and, again, David won. It was a treat for me to
8 watch a master at work, and it was probably worth a year at
9 law school. You can all read about it in the Cumberland Law
10 Journal.
11 Again Shakespeare comes to mind with words spoken
12 by Mortimer in Henry the Fourth, "He is a worthy gentleman,
13 exceedingly well read, valiant as a lion, and wonderously
14 affable and as bountiful as the mines of India."
15 We will miss George in his natural arena, the
16 courtroom. We'll miss him as a teacher. It is something of
17 a disappointment to me that more of the younger attorneys
18 did not come to court to learn from George much the way you
19 remember pictures of young doctors crowded in an ampitheater
20 watching a master surgeon operate.
21 He had an easy manner in the courtroom, never
22 showy; of course, all the work was done beforehand. His
23 cross-examination was limited to the exact testimony he knew
24 he could get. Often there was no cross-examination at all.
25 Objections were rarely made to questions from the
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1 other side, and, even then, only when the line pursued was
2 outrageous. He did not try for shortcuts. He was
3 economical with his words. He did not overtry a case.
4 Ted Bayley always said, with George all the Judge
5 had to do was put it in drive and let it go. He respected
6 the abilities of the layman juror to come to a fair
7 conclusion. His closing arguments -- it seemed to me
8 often amounted to no more than, quote, Be reasonable, ladies
9 and gentlemen. Be reasonable.
10 Although none of us can take his unique place as a
11 model in the trial profession, I can think of none finer.
12 We all had something to learn from him, and we will all miss
13 him. In the words of John Dryden, "His tribe were God
14 Almighty'S gentlemen." Thank you, sir.
15 MR. STONE: Mr. President, when I was driving
16 up here this afternoon, I thought about Franklin Roosevelt.
17 When I went to kindergarten, Franklin Roosevelt was already
18 president; and when I was a senior in high school, he was
19 still President, which I thought that's the only president
20 you needed, that there would never be another one. He would
21 go on forever. Of course, it didn't work that way.
22 When I was admitted to this Bar, it was almost
23 thirty-eight years ago and most of you weren't around town.
24 George Douglas was already the leading trial lawyer, and
25 when you looked at the trial list he had about half the
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1 cases in one way or the other. He was the Defendant or the
2 Plaintiff or he was in it some way. George was about half
3 the trial list, and he stayed that number one trial lawyer
4 for the next thirty-eight years; so I thought that would go
5 on forever, but it doesn't work that way.
6 George was kind of the ultimate lawyer. If you
7 had a problem and you didn't know what to do, if you called
8 George, he would give you some advice, and it was good
9 advice. If you had a case and you didn't have anybody
10 around who wanted to try it or it was embarrassing in some
11 way or it was an awkward situation, you could call George,
12 and George would do it, and he would do it well, better than
13 anybody else. There was nobody like him.
14 What we would like most about George was his
15 letters. If you got a letter from George, it didn't take
16 that long to read it because it was likely to be one
17 sentence or maybe two, and it said everything it had to say.
18 There was nobody like George, and I'm going to miss him very
19 much.
20 MR. McDERMOTT: I don't think I can say
21 anything that hasn't already been said. I remember George
22 as a fellow Marine, and I played in those same poker games
23 with him. I was never a young lawyer. When I started being
24 a new lawyer, George was -- there were two members of this
25 Bar th~t I could always go to and try to keep myself out of
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1 getting in any more trouble than I already was in, and that
2 was George Douglas and Bob Frey.
3 And you're absolutely correct, the man was a
4 perfect gentleman at all times and very, very sound in his
5 knowledge, wisdom, and ability to put his finger on it and
6 tell you where it was and tell you how to take care of it.
7 I remember the other night at the viewing, I think
8 that's the first time I have ever seen George Douglas
9 somber. He had generally unruly hair, which I can't match.
10 He had a lovely grin and twinkle in his eye always, and I
11 think his civility in the courtroom is something that should
12 be reinstituted in today's litigation. A lovely, lovely
13 man, good Marine, and a fine poker player.
14 MR. WEIDNER: Mr. President, my name is Roy
15 Weidner, and I was admitted in 1974. I want to follow up on
16 some comments that Mr. McDermott made. I saw George Douglas
17 in action when I was in high school because my father was
18 the presiding judge in the Frick versus stevens case, and he
19 told me to come watch a master at work, and I did.
20 And then I was admitted to practice, and I was
21 kind of overwhelmed by George at least initially by
22 impression and reputation. Then I got a real bad case
23 against him, and this was where I learned the true George.
24 We were down at Dr. Berkheimer's office in
25 Harrisburg taking his deposition for use at trial. I had
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1 tried and tried to do it right, studied, done everything to
2 learn how to ask the magic question. I didn't do it right.
3 Some of it you know how that you would have
4 another lawyer leave you hang there and then take it up to
5 the trial judge. George didn't do that. He said, RoY, come
6 out here a minute. And he took me out of the room, and he
7 said, Here's how you do it. Bang. Bang. Bang. And we
8 went back in, and I did it.
9 Years later I was assigned a case by an insurance
10 carrier where George had filed a suit on a subrogation case,
11 and it just was so much George to see the letters go out to
12 the defense counsel; not something like get in touch with
13 me, schedule deposition, but welcome aboard, guys. Let's
14 get this moving. George Douglas in every sense really made
15 civil litigation civil, and we're all going to miss him.
16 MR. STUART: Mr. President, I've asked George
17 which one of us was more stooped. Neither one of us
18 answered that question, so I suppose the decision will have
19 to be up to you. I don't think it would be fair for me to
20 now try to straighten out before you made that decision.
21 When I first remember George, he was an
22 entrepreneur. He and Larry Metcalf, who was Judge Sheely'S
23 tipstaff, competed with each other in the sale of used
24 automobiles.
25 In my forty some years I think George and I had
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1 two cases. I think I won one and he won one. In one of the
2 cases the Judge suggested stopped the hearing and told us
3 we ought to settle this case and indicated, I think, which
4 one had the better case.
5 Mr. Douglas has had many accomplishments, and I
6 think we especially should be very thankful for that because
7 the benefit of those accomplishments were received by the
8 legal profession. He has received many accolades, and I
9 sincerely agree with all of them.
10 George was a very active member of the Cumberland
11 County Bar Association, and he particularly enjoyed the
12 activities after the meetings. He also was very active in
13 the Pennsylvania Bar Association serving on committees,
14 participating in seminars, and continuing legal education.
15 The last course that I attended and probably the
16 only one I will ever attend now was on ethics, and George
17 was the moderator. At the end of the course he very clearly
18 summarized what people had said and indicated what we were
19 required to do.
20 I was hit hard several months ago when I learned
21 of his ailment and his condition. The last report I
22 received, rather recent, was that drops of morphine were
23 being administered.
24 Finally I'm drawn to a Biblical reference -- and
25 maybe that's because when I heard of his ailment I was on
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1 the way to church -- that says that there will be two in the
2 field. One will be taken, and one will be left.
3 And I'm somewhat familiar with that because I had
4 an experience; however, in this circumstance the reference
5 to my personal thoughts indicate that if you must go down
6 the road a little further; that is, West High street and
7 look, YOU'll see two fine young practicing attorneys, his
8 sons.
9 MR. SAJER: Mr. President, we've all lost a
10 great friend. We've also lost our most outstanding trial
11 lawyer, and I have, we have, Carlisle has lost a good
12 citizen, a good father, a good husband.
13 I applaud the craftsmanship of the Resolution that
14 was presented to the Bar. George Douglas was indeed a man
15 to be studied. I say studied because when you reflect upon
16 all the cases that he tried in our adversary system, many
17 cases not easy, the lawyers on the other side not always
18 easy, not always having that civility, that gent1emaness,
19 and all that typified him.
20 All the terrible clients that sometimes run on the
21 other side, and yet throughout all that practice he
22 maintained the ideal that I think we all had when we left
23 law school that we would always be a gentleman. We would
24 always be civil. It didn't matter what the outcome of the
25 case, we would always be friends among the Bar; and that's
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1 the great gift he gave us, the example for many years of
2 certainly the ideal lawyer that we all were privy to know
3 and honor as a member of our Bar.
4 MR. BROUJOS: President Judge Sheely,
5 President of the Bar, the qualities that have been described
6 of George have primarily been with respect to his practice
7 of law, with respect to his compassion and kindness. There
8 are many, many stories.
9 Perhaps it began for us when he graduated from law
10 school and went to Philadelphia. His father had a law
11 office, had a practice, and George had the opportunity to
12 join that practice and went down, but the family wanted to
13 return to CarliSle, and maybe that was appropriate because
14 his roots really were a small country lawyer. At the time
15 he probably didn't know that, but his dedication to his
16 family brought him back to Carlisle.
17 When he got here you may recall that he was
18 admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1950 and to the
19 Cumberland County County Bar in 1954. There was a reason
20 for that hiatus, and that was the county Bar system. He
21 didn't have the money to get started and the opportunity or
22 the clients, so he had to sell used cars, and he sold them
23 for about two years at Buckley Motors.
24 A young man came to him and said, I've gone to
25 several attorneys with my case. I have a $50.00 claim
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1 against someone. Would you help me. I heard you're a
2 lawyer. And George said, Sure I will if I can get
3 associated with a firm.
4 And he went to the Faller firm, and George and
5 John let him associate, and he won the case of $50.00. And
6 so John Faller said, Well, I do a lot of negligence work.
7 Can you help us out.
8 And George worked there, and frankly he was in the
9 position I think more of like an intern or clerk, and after
10 being admitted to the Bar he was there for about a year, and
11 every single case that John Faller tried, George Faller --
12 George Douglas was right next to him.
13 Except one time as they walked across the street
14 from Farmer's Trust to the old courthouse to go in the rear,
15 John Faller turned around and said, This is just a case of
16 domestic support. I, myself, am associating with an
17 attorney from Franklin County, so we won't need you. Go
18 back and study.
19 And that's the time that Percy Haines took a
20 pistol and went around the courtroom; otherwise, George
21 would have been there. And it seems he was saved for us,
22 for the greatness that he gave to this Bar and to his family
23 and his wife and the community.
24 But George's dedication to the Bar was
25 accompanied, as many of you have said, with a lot of humor.
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1 He used to play the role and continued it for a long time of
2 just a poor country lawyer.
3 And I've had attorneys that have told me when I
4 was asked where I was from, and I told them, they said, do
5 you know that little old poor country lawyer up there,
6 George Douglas.
7 George told me one time how he was in a case in
8 pittsburgh and was, you know, getting ready for a pretrial,
9 and they were sitting around waiting to be called and not
10 having much to do, and they -- one attorney said, Well,
11 let's talk about the salaries or the income we make as
12 attorneys.
13 And they went around the room and each one said
14 how much they made, and when they came to George, George
15 told me he had to lie and tell them that he made less
16 because he made more than every single guy in the room.
17 That's another example of his kindness, always thinking of
18 the other person.
19 In the Marine corps he was compassionate with his
20 troops. During the Korean War, we had a company at the
21 Second Marine Division in Camp Lejeune, and they trained
22 very hard. There was a war on.
23 They trained all week, and the troops just wanted
24 to rest over the weekend, and, no, they had to go to a
25 regimental parade every saturday morning at about 7:30 and
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1 had to fallout at 5:00.
2 So the companies fell out and the battalions fell
3 out, and they went up and stood for a half hour wait,
4 waiting for the gentlemen to come and have a pass by review,
5 and morale was bad.
6 So George, with his unique initiative, he said,
7 First sergeant, what's the earliest time that we can fall
8 the troops out and they can move up to the parade ground.
9 Lo and behold, the next parade passing review they had the
10 entire regiment lined up except for one company.
11 And then they -- the gunny rousted the troops out,
12 blew his whistle and moved them out, right column, left
13 column, right in and slid them right into that slot; and
14 then they said sound adjectives call, and they passed in
15 review, and from then on the morale of that unit was very
16 high compared to the morale of the other units.
17 George played basketball. He was a great
18 basketball player in the Jaycees, and he wore his glasses
19 all the time. Every game they would get knocked off, and he
20 would pick them up and put them on. And one game the
21 glasses were knocked off, and they were broken, and after
22 that he made every single shot. George didn't forget the
23 glasses.
24 He also was very special to the Marines because he
25 had that compassion for the troops but also had that great
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1 sense of humor that permitted him to make their lives easier
2 and to let them know how much he thought of them. He went
3 to drills. He went to drills every single time, and he did
4 that among all of his chores and all of his other
5 obligations.
6 In school, as a member of the school board, I saw
7 him in the senior high school auditorium take the
8 responsibility of fielding all the questions of an
9 auditorium filled with irrate taxpayers and citizens, and he
10 stood there calmly, patiently answering all the questions
11 and taking all of the wrath with the same dignity and sense
12 of calmness that we've all seen in his life.
13 No man is perfect, and George had his faults; and
14 I used to tell him -- I lived across the street from him in
15 1954 for about four or five years, and I would go over and I
16 would drink beer with him, and we would paint his apartment.
17 We would drink a little, paint a little. We would drink a
18 little, paint a little.
19 I'd say, George, you know your only fault was the
20 beer. Where did you get this rot gut, and it was National
21 Bo. And George said, Well, my friend George Rook sells it,
22 and there again was the consummate, compassionate person,
23 George Douglas.
24 He did his duty in all the levels of society, to
25 his God, to his country, to his friends, to his Bar, and to
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1 his family.
2 MR. ANDREWS: Mr. President, Taylor Andrews.
3 I'm in the back of the room, and I want the record to show
4 that I'm in the back of this largest courtroom in the
5 courthouse. I've been a member of the Bar for twenty-one
6 years, and I've attended a number of these services. I've
7 never seen a room as crowded as this room where we have
8 standing room only, and I want to make sure that our written
9 record of this reflects that.
10 I also just want to remember very fondly how
11 approachable George Douglas was to a younger attorney. I
12 was twenty-one years younger than George, and often times
13 twenty-one years can interfere with the ability to form a
14 friendship with an older attorney. George was so
15 approachable by everybody.
16 If I had been just coming out of law school now
17 and were forty-two years younger than George, I have no
18 doubt he would be just as approachable; but I think all of
19 us need to try and model ourselves after that trait and help
20 out the attorneys who are younger with the benefit of our
21 experience as George did so generously.
22 MR. SHADE: Mr. DUffie, I endeavor to emulate
23 the memory of George's letters in saying that what is most
24 profound to me personally about all of the observations and
25 remarks that were made of this day is that despite all the
22
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1 immense physical pain that George would have had to have
2 suffered, and only his family and staff really know the
3 extent of that, he never lost these qualities even up to the
4 end.
5 I suppose it would have been very easy for a
6 lesser man to have become bitter or given up with the cross
7 that he was given to bear. In December when I relocated my
8 office to Pomfret street and my announcements went out, even
9 at that time George had to have been in a very bad way, I
10 nevertheless received a congratulatory letter from him, and
11 I will always treasure that letter.
12 MR. FREY: Mr. President, certainly as Taylor
13 Andrews observed the presence of so many people here today
14 speaks more eloquently as to the higher regard each of us
15 has for George than any words that I could choose, that
16 George was exceptionally and remarkably capable and
17 industrious~
18 And it's known to nearly all of us, but when the
19 final appeal is concluded and the controversies have all
20 been resolved, I think what will remain with us most vividly
21 as a recollection of what George meant to each of us
22 individually and to all of us collectively is his unfailing
23 good humor, cheerfulness, and thoughtfulness.
24 That same attitude was held by him for the legal
25 profession as a whole, and his annual Christmas party was
23
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lone means by which he had of bringing us together and
2 smoothing out some of the rough edges that might otherwise
3 have developed among us. He was a credit to the legal
4 profession as well as to himself as an outstanding
5 practitioner.
6 MR. ABELN: Mr. President, George Douglas was
7 a very close friend of mine, and he also was my mentor.
8 When I came to Carlisle in '72 after the Army, I became a
9 probation officer and many times I was in the courtroom on a
10 juvenile case or doing presentence investigations.
11 Back then we used to have court, open court, on a
12 Tuesday, and all the lawyers would come in and file a
13 motion; and for whatever reason I ended up sitting next to
14 George a number of times, and we chatted, and the next thing
15 you know a couple years roll by and I thought, well, gee
16 whiz, I would like to go to law school.
17 And George probably -- and there was a lot of
18 people who gave me encouragement, but he's one of the guys
19 who took the time to sit down with me and say, Greg, just do
20 it. Just do it. Don't look back. Just do it.
21 I had a wife and kids and a mortgage and a car
22 payment, and I thought, Oh my God, but I applied. I got
23 accepted and went on, and it was shortly there afterwards
24 where I had to make a decision where I was going to go and
25 work.
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1 I had an offer with a nice firm with one of the
2 fellows that's here in the courtroom today as well as with
3 the District Attorney's Office, and I said, Well, you know,
4 I've spent some time and I've watched you, George, and I'd
5 really like to be a litigator.
6 I tended towards going to the DA's office, but the
7 DA's office is only offering me $16,000.00 and another firm
8 is offering me a lot more. He says, Well, what do you
9 really want to do. And I said, Well, I want to be a
10 litigator. He says, Just do it. Just do it. And I did.
11 Well, a couple years went past and I had some
12 personal tragedy, and I talked to George about that; and he
13 gave me some advice in a decision I had to make, and he said
14 just do it after listening to me.
15 So he was more than just a mentor, he was a real
16 personal friend, and that meant an awful lot to me and still
17 does. I had the opportunity the other week to go out and
18 visit George, and he wasn't doing too well.
19 He was in bed, and so Sylvia was there. A couple
20 of our friends stopped by, and he said, Greg, you know the
21 worst part about this disease is I can't taste the Heiney.
22 He made sure that I had one, and I'm sitting there drinking
23 one; and he looks over at Bill, and he just says Billy. He
24 pointed to the table.
25 Billy knew. He grabbed a little cup, went over
25
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1 and poured George a little bit of Heiney, and he looks up to
2 us and he says, like that. Well, what he said is just do
3 it, and we all drank together, and that meant a lot to me.
4 Four thirty today -- I don't know how to pay
5 George back, but I'm going to go over to the Gingerbread Man
6 and have a beer for George; so if anybody else would like to
7 join me, I certainly would welcome that a lot.
a MR. FALLER: Mr. President, I'm glad John
9 Broujos broke a little ground for me there because I was
10 going to get into relationships that I had with George
11 Douglas.
12 After my brother was killed, George and I set up a
13 partnership, Faller and Douglas, and I think we were
14 together and working perhaps two years or more when George
15 came to me one day, and he says, I'm taking tomorrow off.
16 I said, What? You know, he never took time off. He worked,
17 worked, worked.
1a I'm taking tomorrow off. I said, Go ahead.
19 You're entitled to it. And he said, I have a couple things,
20 one or two things I would like to have you do for me
21 tomorrow, and I'll leave a note on your desk tomorrow.
22 So I got in there the next morning and here was a
23 full legal-sized yellow sheet of paper all the way down.
24 First, take thlS file, take so and so out of it, write him a
25 letter, put the file back in the file cabinet where it
26
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1 belongs. Take this one -- just one after another right down
2 to the bottom of the page.
3 Well, it wasn't quite to the bottom because at the
4 bottom he had, While you're running around doing all this,
5 stick a broom up you know where and brush the floor. That
6 was George Douglas. We didn't know what to expect next from
7 him.
8 There was one time -- let me give you a little
9 background. The Court assigned a young gal to us who was
10 high school aged, and she was in her first year of high
11 school. There was serious family problems, and the girl
12 just wasn't being brought up properly; parents would give
13 her fifteen cents to go buy a Coke for supper, something
14 like that.
15 Now, we had this girl for three years while she
16 finished up in high school, and for the sake of anonymity
17 I'll call her Julie Jones. And SUbsequently after
18 graduating from high school and so forth, she married a
19 fellow by the name of Smith, so, of course, she was Julie
20 Smith.
21 I came back from the courthouse one day __ and
22 George and I were still partners -- came back from the
23 courthouse, and there was a pink telephone note on my desk.
24 And I picked it up, and it said, Loverboy, JUlie Smith was
25 here to see you. She said she used to live with you. Oh
27
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1 boy what a past you must have.
2 Every Christmas my wife and our children and I
3 would go to my mother's for Christmas dinner, and this one
4 Christmas day we did, and when we got over there Elaine
5 said, Did you bring so and so. I don't remember what so and
6 so was, but I forgot like I usually did.
7 No problem, Nancy is coming over shortly in the
8 other car. I'll call her. So somehow or another I made a
9 mistake. Just out of force of habit I dialed the office,
10 and I hear a click on the other side, Faller and Douglas.
11 I said, Oh my God, Christmas Day. It wouldn't
12 have been anybody but you. I will never forget that. He
13 was in there Christmas Day. George was a perfect gentleman,
14 the most astute attorney I've ever known. He was just a
15 pleasure to work with.
16 JUDGE QUIGLEY: Mr. President, Judge Quigley.
17 Although I can claim bar membership here quite a few years
18 in the past, I thought as the district immediately to the
19 north I would come down here and place on the record the
20 high regard with which I personally held George and also the
21 high regard with which he was held by the members of the
22 Bar. George was looked at as a lawyer, and I can speak for
23 myself that he was looked at as a judge's lawyer. Thank
24 you.
25 MR. GUIDO: Mr. President, I think it speaks
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1 volumes for Mr. Douglas, for George, that we have his
2 friends as old as George Faller and as young as my former
3 associate Chuck Vohs, who was recently out of law school,
4 that were good friends with the man.
5 John Slike indicated he had the good fortune of
6 being his fraternity brother. I feel I also was George's
7 fraternity brother in this profession of ours. George made
8 it seem like we were all in this together.
9 Like what has already been said here today, George
10 always had the time for you. If you had to ask him a
11 question, I was always amazed by the time that he would
12 take, that he would have for you.
13 sometimes I would feel embarrassed about calling
14 him at his office to ask him a legal question, and I knew I
15 could most of the time find him at the G-Man drinking his
16 Heineken, one or two after work. He's going to be sorely
17 missed.
18 MR. FALLER, JR.: Mr. president, as one of
19 the younger members of the Bar -- I believe Judge Hoffer
20 said it -- a lot of the traits that most of us admire in Mr.
21 Douglas are traits that are disappearing from the
22 profession.
23 And I think for the younger attorneys that are
24 here and younger attorneys I know, not only in Carlisle, but
25 Lancaster and York, plaintiff or defense lawyers, when I
29
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1 spoke to them within the last week or last several weeks,
2 the first question was not about our case, the question was
3 how is George doing.
4 And I think that most, if not all, the lawyers
5 that I try to deal with and that I deal with in those areas
6 try to emulate those qualities, and I think as long as we
7 can try to do those things and as long as there's civil
8 cases, civil jury trials going on in Cumberland county,
9 where guys look each other or ladies look each other in the
10 eye at the end of a case and shake hands and walk away and
11 can really mean it, that the legacy and what he meant to
12 being a trial lawyer will live on.
13 And having had the experience to also do things
14 with -- try a case with Bill and with George, his sons,
15 presently know that. The only case I tried, a jury trial,
16 was before Judge George Hoffer with Mr. Douglas, and his son
17 George, III, was there.
18 And right before we were going to give our closing
19 statements, Judge Hoffer calls us back in his chambers; so
20 it's the three of us with George Douglas, my godfather, in
21 the middle and to his right is his son and to his left I am,
22 and Judge Hoffer was looking down at these briefs and says,
23 Well, George, what do you think? Mr. Douglas looks to his
24 left, looks to his right, and looks at Judge Hoffer.
25 MRS. DEL DUCA: Mr. President, several of us
30
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1 have mentioned Mr. Douglas's pleasure at having a beer
2 during the the end of the day. During the weeks of Lent
3 George deprived himself. He was very disciplined.
4 He was very active in the Pennsylvania Bar
5 Association, and what most of you here don't know, there is
6 a huge, huge bound volume that the PBA has had for decades;
7 and when you register for an annual meeting or semi-annual
8 meeting at the bar association, it's divided into counties
9 and meetings, and so you sign it.
10 Well, over the years there's never been more than
11 a half a dozen members of this Bar who have signed in that
12 they're attending that annual meeting, but over the last
13 quarter century or more George Douglas'S name was always at
14 the top of the list there.
15 MR. DEL DUCA: I would like to just share one
16 brief story which was a favorite story that George used to
17 tell after I put myself in agreement with everything else
18 that has been said here.
19 He had his wont of ease, which no one else that I
20 know of has possessed, and the -- along with all of the
21 other memories that we'll have, I would hope that that
22 aspect of what George offered to us could always remain with
23 us.
24 He had one story in particular which he told time
25 and time again, so I'm sure YOU'll forgive me for retelling
31
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1 it. And he had -- by the time that I heard the story the
2 first time, he had shifted from National to Molson, his
3 favorite beer, and he hadn't gotten quite to the Heineken
4 stage yet.
5 But it seems -- and I was very pleased to hear
6 that he had a couple of years in the car business, and I
7 didn't know that because I thought after this incident he
8 would have given up his activities in the field of venture
9 capitalism; but as a third year law student I'm told that
10 with his family responsibilities that he had, he thought it
11 was time to make some money in addition to supplement the
12 income that he had.
13 And around about Christmastime he went out and did
14 what a lot of people do, he bought up a big inventory of
15 Christmas trees, and the sales went reasonably well. He
16 found himself with a little bit of an inventory near the
17 end, but to his surprise three or four days before Christmas
18 he got wind of the fact that the gasoline stations and the
19 YMCA's were selling their inventory at half price.
20 Well, George, with all the trouble that he was
21 capable of, went out and bought up all of that inventory,
22 and as was the inevitable result, when Christmas rolled
23 around he had the problem of paying for the disposition of
24 the leftover inventory.
25 But George told that story so many times always
32
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1 with a great smile and a twinkle in his eye, and it's that
2 kind of (unintelligible) that I will always remember from
3 George.
4 MR. DORER: Mr. President, I just want to
5 make a few brief comments in addition to those that have
6 already been said here today. I am one of the many, many
7 attorneys that George has helped over the years and always
8 made time to help me with any question I might have for him.
9 Some of the other speakers commented as to the
10 brevity of many of his letters, and I can say that has
11 softened and humored many of the most hardened gentlemen at
12 my company.
13 Mr. Faller spoke a few minutes ago, and he and I
14 frequently travel to many of our neighboring county
15 courthouses and law offices, and I just want to say in the
16 last few months the conversation has -- before we even got
17 to talking about the cases -- the conversation invariably
18 started out with asking about George's well-being and
19 health. Thank you.
20 MR. GILROY: Mr. President, I was fortunate
21 enough to be one of those young lawyers who was told by my
22 superior to go over and watch George Douglas in a trial.
23 The first trial I saw George was in courtroom number two
24 where Judge Sheely was presiding.
25 George had a Plaintiff's case against Jim Thomas
JJ
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1 from Harrisburg. Jim gave a very eloquent closing, and
2 George stood up and approached the jury and said, Ladies and
3 gentlemen, everything you just heard is hogwash, complete
4 hogwash.
5 And that taught me like what a lot of people have
6 said, he had a common sense approach toward the judicial
7 system, something that I think we all should practice.
8 Recently I recall that about five months ago I
9 just finished a nasty trial with an attorney who doesn't
10 enjoy the qualities that George would carry around with him,
11 and after the trial I got faxed to me at 5:30 as I was
12 walking out, a nasty, adversarial posturing letter.
13 When I got home, I just said to Mary, why can't
14 all lawyers practice law like George Douglas. I believe
15 that that echoes what many of you have said.
16 On a personal note, yesterday morning when we were
17 telling our kids at the house everything about George, they
18 were getting ready for school, and it took us a few minutes.
19 My seven year old -- and out of the mouths of babes come
20 wonderful things. He said, Daddy, George must be an angel
21 in heaven today. I believe that.
22 MR. MILKES: Mr. President, many have made
23 comments about George Douglas'S great success in the
24 practice of law and his financial success, but I think this
25 record should also reflect his commitment to representing
34
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1 low income people and accepting pro bono cases.
2 Mr. Douglas -- I don't think many of us
3 recognize -- took more than his fair share of cases referred
4 to him, people walking into his office or people referred to
5 him through the local Legal Services Program.
6 And I remember my own experience when I was with
7 Legal services and George was the President of the Bar, and
8 I can't remember exactly when that was, but it was well over
9 ten years ago or approximately ten years ago.
10 And it was the first time that we were attempting
11 to try to get a program set up where the Bar would have some
12 formal process for the referral of pro bono cases, and most
13 Presidents are not real fond of that subject.
14 But George's response was to embrace it, work with
15 me to work with our program and the Bar, and to begin the
16 first organized system for referring low income clients to
17 attorneys within the Bar to assure that they would get
18 assistance that Legal services could not offer, and I always
19 remember George for his willingness to put himself on the
20 line with the Bar and to begin that process.
21 MR. DUFFIE: I'll give everybody a last
22 chance. We've heard for fifty some minutes accolades for
23 Attorney Douglas. We appreciate those members of the Bar
24 Association who have taken the time to stand and say a few
25 words about Mr. Douglas as well as those members of the Bar
35
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1 Association who attended this memorial service who just by
2 your presence let us know of your feelings towards Mr.
3 Douglas.
4 I would note from what I've heard -- aside from
S all the attributes of Mr. Douglas -- for those young lawyers
6 under thirty, if you drink National 50, and if you study
7 hard and be yourself, by the time you're sixty-some you'll
8 be drinking Heineken. This meeting is adjourned.
9 (Whereupon, the memorial service for George
10 F. Douglas, Jr., Esquire, adjourned at 2:00 p.m.)
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