Judge Staker

It's Friday morning early and yesterday was consumed by the trip to and from Huntington, for Judge Staker's funeral. I dropped my youngest off at school and just kept on going.

Judge Staker was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of West Virginia and took the bench in late September 1979. Before that, he had been a Circuit Judge in his native Mingo County for 10 years and before that, a private lawyer for several years in Williamson, Mingo County. When he became a Federal judge, he was just about the age I am right now. I, on the other hand, was a 23-year-old brand new lawyer, and as they say "I didn't know nuthin about nuthin."

I was blessed to be one of his first three law clerks. One of the others was a woman from Huntington who had "gone back" to school and had just finished - she was in her mid-thirties with a lawyer-husband and two small daughters. The other was a fellow from Buffalo, N.Y., who had sought out a clerkship by sending resumes to newly-appointed judges throughout the country. In some ways, we were an unlikely team, but it was fortuitous (at least for we three clerks) that we all were brought together. This was a dream job, the type of job that many told me "you will never get because you have no connections." Well....let me give credit where credit is due and say that God opened up a door for me there, no doubt -

Clerking for a United States District Judge was a wonderful entree into the profession of law. Clerking for this man, Judge Staker, in particular was an unbelievably wonderful experience. He was almost paternal but never patronizing in his desire to "bring us along" for the ride of establishing his new court. He was interested in us personally as well as professionally. It was the type of first job all of us can only hope to have - the type you would want your child to experience after all the dreaming, all the planning, all the hard work, all the expense of preparing yourself for "what you want to do when you grow up."

Although I haven't seen the Judge often since I left his employ in the early 1980's -clerkships generally are designed to be short-term positions, and all three of us were gone by about the end of 1982 - and I also haven't seen my two law-clerk colleagues often - we've kept in touch enough to stay connected. Not as much as I would have liked - but we've touched base. The Buffalo native now has three children, and went back to Buffalo where he practices tax law. The Huntington native and her husband raised their daughters and retired from the law and moved to the Charlottesville, Va., area, where he runs a B&B and she works as an editor for a small (non-law related!) publishing company. (They are said to be "recovering lawyers" :) And I am where am I am. I have to admit - sometimes when I'm on the bench, I hear Judge Staker's words coming out of my mouth. I hope that doesn't sound like I'm bragging - I'm a poor imitation of the man, but he did have an impact on me. During this year of career transition in my own life, I've often wanted to talk to Judge Staker, to get his insight and advice; unfortunately, his first stroke occurred shortly after the primary election, and he's been quite ill and mostly unable to communicate well since then. None of the three of us had gotten to see him since he fell ill - he was in a nursing home when he passed - but we got the word that he would prefer not to be seen this way and certainly we wanted to and did honor that.

The last time the four us had been together was September 30, 2005, when we celebrated Judge Staker's retirement. (I have a picture taken of us that day on my computer somewhere but can't find it right now! I will post it here if and when I am able to locate it - some of my friends out there have suggested I need to do a better job of posting pictures on this blog and I will try, promise.) He and his wife could have had dinner with anyone present but they sought the three of us out and invited us to be their guests. It's special to me that my youngest son, who was 8 and had never met the Judge, was with me. (Judge Staker was a wordsmith and my son took great pride in telling him that I had taught him to use the word "accoutrement" with the explanation that that was a favorite word of Judge Staker's! If you catch me in person sometime, ask me what the "accoutrement" was --)

It's poignant to think that the three of us might not be together again at the same place in this lifetime. Unless we just make it happen, considering the geographic distances, our histories of contact and the realities of life, it's hard to imagine how that might occur. But it was special to be together for those early years of our careers with Judge Staker, and it was special and appropriate for us to be together again yesterday to say farewell to this great mean who touched each of our lives so much.