Bar Memorials: 2012
COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF LEHIGH COUNTY
2012 BAR MEMORIALS CEREMONY
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013
9:00 O’CLOCK A.M.
COURTROOM 2A
LEHIGH COUNTY COURTHOUSE
ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA 18101
*JOHN R. HUDDERS
*JAMES L. WEIRBACH
*MICHAEL J. EGAN
*RICHARD RAUCH
*ANDREW K. PARKER
*JOHN LOUIS KRAJSA, JR.
*JAY A. SCHERLINE
BEFORE:
HONORABLE CAROL K. MCGINLEY, P.J.
HONORABLE EDWARD D. REIBMAN, J.
HONORABLE WILLIAM E. FORD, J.
HONORABLE ROBERT L. STEINBERG, J.
HONORABLE J. BRIAN JOHNSON, J.
HONORABLE KELLY L. BANACH, J.
HONORABLE JAMES T. ANTHONY, J.
HONORABLE MARIA L. DANTOS, J.
HONORABLE MICHELE A. VARRICCHIO, J.
HONORABLE DOUGLAS G. REICHLEY, J.
* * *
ERIN ALEXANDER, RPR
Official Court Reporter
2
1 MR. WARMKESSEL: All rise
2 please.
3 Oyez, Oyez, Oyez, all manner of
4 persons having anything to do before the Honorable
5 Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh
6 County, here holden this day, let them come forward
7 and they shall be heard. God save the Commonwealth
8 and this Honorable Court. You may be seated.
9 PRESIDENT JUDGE MCGINLEY: Good
10 morning. On behalf of my colleagues on the Court
11 of Common Pleas, I welcome you to this, the annual
12 Lehigh County Bar Association Memorials; a special
13 session of court convened to honor the memories of
14 those members of our Bar Association who passed
15 away during the previous year.
16 The Court recognizes Mr. Robert
17 Knauer, Esquire, the President of the Bar
18 Association of Lehigh County.
19 MR. KNAUER: Thank you, Your
20 Honor. May it please the Court, Honorable Judges
21 of the Court, dignitaries, distinguished guests,
22 friends, colleagues.
23 On behalf of the Bar
24 Association of Lehigh County, welcome to this
25 longstanding and time-honored tradition, our annual
3
1 Bar Memorials. This tradition dates back to at
2 least the creation of the Bar Association in 1905,
3 and probably before. And its purpose, of course,
4 is to honor and remember, reflect upon and
5 celebrate the lives and careers of our association
6 members who have passed on. We thank the Court for
7 its commitment to and its encouragement of and
8 participation in this tribute. And I give
9 particular thanks to John Baker who arranges this
10 and spends the hours necessary to attend to the
11 details.
12 Today we gather to honor seven
13 of our members who passed away in this last
14 calendar year. They are in the order of their
15 passing; and those who are here to speak to us on
16 their behalf are as follows:
17 John R. Hudders. And Dolores
18 Laputka is here to speak to us about him.
19 James L. Weirbach. Charles
20 Fonzone is here to speak to us about him.
21 Michael J. Egan. Judith Harris
22 is here for him.
23 Richard Rauch. Peter Perry is
24 here to speak for him.
25 Andrew K. Parker. Linda
4
1 Luther-Veno is here.
2 John Louis Krajsa, Jr. For
3 him, Kent Herman will speak.
4 And, finally, Jay A. Scherline.
5 And Melissa Schwartz is here to speak to us about
6 him.
7 Before I ask Dolores to come
8 forward, I’d like to say this: It is unfortunate
9 that we often learn so much about a person for the
10 first time when he or she is being eulogized.
11 Parts of a personalty that we didn’t know about,
12 interesting facts, accomplishments, admirable
13 traits. Learning these things makes us realize
14 that the colleague who has passed on, the ally who
15 has worked with us, the adversary who’s opposed us,
16 the neighbor next door was somebody that we really
17 did not know and, in retrospect, wish we had.
18 So I take from these memorials
19 the reminder that the people in this courtroom,
20 today, are more than I know them to be. And I
21 thank those who’ve left us and those who are here
22 to speak for them for reminding me of that and
23 helping me to appreciate it. Perhaps they’ll help
24 all of us to take each other less for granted.
25 Dolores?
5
1 MS. LAPUTKA: Good morning.
2 May it please the Court, Honorable Judges,
3 colleagues, friends and family. Let’s make this
4 day a little brighter than it certainly has started
5 out by remembering seven distinguished colleagues.
6 There was an article in the
7 Wall Street Journal recently reviewing the manner
8 in which a federal district court judge in full
9 robes stood at the podium at an event in front of
10 his colleagues and to the tune of “If I Were a Rich
11 Man” sang:
12 “If lawyers were more civil,
13 dawdle, deedle, deedle, dawdle, dawdle, dawdle,
14 deedle, dum. They’d treat their brethren with more
15 respect. Wouldn’t always yell and object.”
16 Fortunately, I don’t make a
17 living with my voice. And, in the world of
18 lawyering, where it is headed is the subject of
19 another day or perhaps a cocktail conversation.
20 But my partner and mentor, John
21 Raker Hudders, better known as Jack, was part of an
22 era that did just that: treated opposing counsel
23 with the same graciousness and respect they treated
24 partners. While Jack could have been a formidable
25 opponent, advocating a very strong position on
6
1 behalf of his clients; but during the proceeding,
2 he would be fair, honest and would shake hands with
3 opposing counsel when everything was over. Talk
4 about the kids, talk about golf, talk about
5 whatever they had in common.
6 As one of Jack’s partners, I’m
7 happy to say he hired me over 20 years ago. And
8 just to show his liberalness; I waddled in seven
9 months pregnant, and he never blinked an eye. He
10 challenged me; he challenged our associates. He
11 edited our work with his famous — or I should say
12 infamous — red pen. At Jack’s memorial service
13 last year, I mentioned how Jack had three
14 biological offspring, but had many, many more
15 professional offspring who he trained with that
16 mighty red pen editing away. Some of you are here
17 today.
18 Jack was a very precise
19 draftsman which was both a blessing and a curse.
20 He drove us crazy with the editing. At the end of
21 the day, though, the final product was well worth
22 the effort; and for an estates and trusts lawyer,
23 it was an essential quality.
24 Those of us who worked and
25 played with Jack were very proud of his
7
1 accomplishments beginning with his educational
2 pedigree. Graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy,
3 Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania
4 Law School. He served his country in, what else,
5 the Army Reserves Intelligence Corps, retiring as a
6 captain. He joined his father’s well-known
7 Allentown firm of Butz, Hudders and Tallman, of
8 course working in the field of business and estates
9 and trusts, what else. And he would continue to
10 excel in that the remainder of his life.
11 The Honorable Judge James Knoll
12 Gardner, here with us today, who was a lifelong
13 friend of Jack’s, also spoke at Jack’s memorial
14 service. He specifically referenced how Jack
15 appeared many times in front of him for trust and
16 estate audits and related litigation. And he did
17 that for clients of all walks of life. He remarked
18 how Jack was always prepared, thorough, accurate
19 and persuasive. And for those of you who have been
20 in front of Judge Gardner, that’s quite a
21 compliment.
22 Not unlike some of the other
23 gentlemen being honored today, Jack gave back to
24 his community in several ways. His first love and
25 dedication was to Good Shepherd, being a
8
1 lifelong — with his lifelong history. And for
2 those of you who don’t know or aren’t aware, Jack’s
3 grandparents — Jack and Jill Douglass’s
4 grandparents I should say — started Good Shepherd
5 over a hundred years ago. But that wasn’t his only
6 passion. He spent a great deal of time and effort
7 in every capacity of leadership with the Baum
8 School, Counsel to Phoebe-Devitt Home among other
9 non-profits, board positions with the United Way,
10 Boy Scouts, and the list goes on.
11 One of Jack’s proudest
12 accomplishments was his role in working with
13 Leonard Pool, the founder and CEO of Air Products.
14 He helped formulate and assisted in drafting the
15 documents in creating the Pool Trust and the
16 Rider-Pool Trust, which are two of the most
17 significant philanthropic foundations benefitting
18 the Lehigh Valley today, particularly in the field
19 of health care.
20 But, alas, behind every great
21 man, there is a woman. Sylvia Stevenson Hudders
22 was the love of his life. And using those lawyerly
23 persuasive powers, Jack asked her to marry him in
24 1963; a decision she never regretted. They have
25 three terrific children, Bill and Anne are with us
9
1 today. Bill, an artist and professor. Tom who
2 couldn’t fly all the way in from Jackson Hole. And
3 Anne who’s a teacher in New Jersey. All of whom
4 have been pillars in Sylvia’s world after Jack was
5 in a terrible auto accident in 1997. Fortunately,
6 Jack lived long enough to enjoy his daughter’s
7 marriage to Bill McDonough; and, ultimately, spent
8 a little bit of time with his granddaughter Sydney.
9 There are many more stories and
10 accolades that I could share with you, but in
11 deference to the families of the other members that
12 are being honored today, I would simply like us to
13 remember that during Jack’s professional life, he
14 continued to raise the bar for lawyers practicing,
15 not only in Lehigh County, but in the Lehigh
16 Valley. Our little corner of the world here in the
17 Lehigh Valley is a far better place for having had
18 the benefit of the kindness and the wisdom of John
19 Raker Hudders to guide us.
20 (Whereupon, the memorial
21 honoring John R. Hudders concluded.)
22 * * *
23 MR. FONZONE: May it please the
24 Court, Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of
25 Lehigh County, Federal District Judge Gardner,
10
1 retired Judge Brenner, Judge Platt out there, and
2 distinguished officers and members of the Bar
3 Association, honored guests, friends, and,
4 especially, Mrs. Weirbach, Jim’s wife of 61 and a
5 half years, Annabel Good Weirbach. As you will
6 hear, Jim engaged in lasting relationships.
7 His sons Stephen J. of Roswell,
8 Georgia, and Mark A. of Clemente, California, with
9 Jim’s granddaughter, Julie, could not be here. I
10 have been afforded the great honor and privilege of
11 speaking with you this morning about the life and
12 career of Jim Weirbach, a remarkable lawyer.
13 Who was Jim Weirbach? We know
14 he grew up in Coopersburg, the only child of two
15 doting parents. Under their guidance he learned
16 the values of patience, duty and hard work by
17 taking care of the animals on his parents’ farm.
18 Some of his jobs were raising ducklings, building
19 fish ponds, leading horses to cultivate pastures
20 which he described to me as not fun if the beasts
21 would stomp on him.
22 We know he was bright and had a
23 passion for learning. He was the salutatorian in
24 1942 of the newly constructed Coopersburg High
25 School’s first graduating class. Due to his hard
11
1 work and diligence, he received a scholarship to
2 Muhlenberg College beginning in September of 1942.
3 We know he was a patriot and he
4 had a deep commitment to ideas in which he
5 believed. Even though he was excited about
6 attending college, World War II was raging and he
7 enlisted in the Army Air Corps in December 1942.
8 At that time he was promised that he would be able
9 to complete a full college year before he was
10 called into the Service. The needs of the country,
11 however, took precedence, and he was called into
12 active duty two months later in February of 1943.
13 He served three years as a trained weather observer
14 for the Army Air Corps. The data he collected was
15 used by over a hundred weather stations, and,
16 ultimately, by the U.S. Weather Forecast, drawing
17 weather maps for the bombardier training. He was
18 honorably discharged in February of 1946 after
19 advancing to the rank of Staff Sergeant.
20 We know he was determined.
21 After his discharge, he returned to Muhlenberg
22 College, graduated in June of 1949 with a Bachelor
23 of Arts in History and Political Science. His
24 department head, Dr. Swain, knew Jim was interested
25 in law school and liked to direct students to
12
1 either Dickinson or the University of Pennsylvania.
2 Jim, however, had other ideas. His father,
3 T. Mahlon Weirbach, an English teacher as well as a
4 gentleman farmer, had graduated from the University
5 of the Michigan. Jim knew it was an excellent
6 school. He was determined to go there, applied and
7 was accepted.
8 Before finishing law school,
9 Jim met Annabel Good in 1948. She was teaching
10 second grade at Mosser Elementary School in
11 Allentown. They married on June 17, 1950, and
12 promptly set out to buy a house trailer in Ann
13 Arbor, Michigan, where they lived for the last two
14 years of Jim’s law school training, receiving his
15 Juris Doctor degree in June of ’52.
16 He passed the Bar and was
17 required to serve a year under a preceptor. A
18 preceptor, for the younger attorneys, was a
19 practicing attorney who — when you went to law
20 school, you had to be registered with a practicing
21 attorney. There was a mandatory six-month
22 clerkship which was six months without compensation
23 and was a necessary qualification for practice
24 before the local court. In addition, at that time
25 a committee of the Bar Association — and you’ll
13
1 find this hard to believe today, I guess —
2 interviewed young lawyers to determine their moral
3 and technical fitness for practice in Lehigh
4 County. Jim served his preceptorship under
5 Theodore R. Gardner, Esquire. He was admitted to
6 the Lehigh County Bar in January of 1954. He
7 became the Solicitor for Borough of Coopersburg and
8 practiced law in Judge — later Judge Gardner’s
9 office in the B & B Building which is up at 6th and
10 Hamilton Street.
11 In 1966, he moved to the
12 Commonwealth Building which is across the street,
13 and most of you believe that that’s a four-story
14 building. Well, back in the day, it was a
15 seven-story building; and we had the disastrous
16 fire of 1975 which made it a four-story building.
17 Jim’s office was on the 6th floor, and as a young
18 lawyer, I remember going to his office in 1972. It
19 was a rather small room and there were four desks
20 in the room. One of the desks was for Donald Hoch
21 who happened to be the two-time Mayor of the City
22 of Allentown as well as a lawyer. Bernie Naef had
23 another desk; he was the County Solicitor. And I
24 looked on the plaque, and I think there were three
25 county solicitors at that time. Jack Kaufman, who
14
1 was the labor attorney for the City of Allentown;
2 and there were not many attorneys for the City of
3 Allentown at that time. And Mr. Weirbach. His
4 background, his education, his drive, his
5 commitment resulted in him being the Solicitor for
6 the Borough of Coopersburg — I told you he
7 believed in long relationships — for 32 years. He
8 was the Solicitor for the Borough of Alburtis, and
9 they could not even tell me how long he was the
10 Solicitor, the records are so old. He was in the
11 midst of his tenure as the law librarian for Lehigh
12 County. He was also the solicitor for the
13 Coopersburg Municipal Authority, a position he held
14 for 50 years. He was the long-time historian for
15 the Bar Association. And, little known to most
16 people today, and probably to your amazement, he
17 singularly ran the arbitration system in Lehigh
18 County.
19 Contrast, if you will, the
20 influence that four lawyers in the little room
21 across the street had on the County, the City,
22 neighboring municipalities and the Bar Association.
23 Certainly, the area has grown. However, we must
24 not forget the efforts of the Jim Weirbachs who
25 positioned today’s lawyers to meet the demands of
15
1 today’s practice.
2 It is impossible to think of
3 the Lehigh County Law Library without thinking of
4 Attorney Weirbach. He took great pride in his
5 service at the Lehigh County Law Library. He was
6 appointed in 1966, and, according, to Judge Robert
7 Young, who is here — and I forgot to mention Judge
8 Young — Jim did a fantastic job in continuing the
9 move of the library, which I suspect most of you
10 don’t remember, from a small anteroom adjacent to
11 Courtroom One in the Old Courthouse across the
12 street to this courthouse. He greatly improved the
13 library’s offerings and size in the continuation of
14 the development of the library to what we have
15 today. He was qualified by the American
16 Association of Law Librarians as a Certified Law
17 Librarian in 1979. Notably in 1980, Lehigh County
18 Law Library was ranked fourth out of 62 county law
19 libraries in Pennsylvania. Judge Coyne, and he is
20 looking down on us back there, some of you may
21 remember him. He wrote to the Honorable Theodore
22 Gardner, Chairman of the Law Library Committee:
23 “We have always considered our
24 law library to be one of the finest of its kind,
25 and it is most satisfying, indeed, to learn that
16
1 when measured by independent standards and experts
2 that opinion is corroborated.”
3 This accolade was due in no
4 small part to Jim’s efforts. Every member of this
5 Bar should thank Attorney Jim Weirbach, an
6 accomplished lawyer, a faithful and dedicated
7 family man and a visionary. His efforts
8 contributed mightily to the advancement and
9 development of the legal community in Lehigh
10 County. His skills as a lawyer tend to be
11 overshadowed by dwelling on the many good things he
12 has done for this Bar and this County. Proud to be
13 the Law Librarian, proud that he was in the ground
14 floor of organizing the arbitration system, proud
15 to serve Coopersburg, Alburtis, and various other
16 municipal entities, overlooks the fact that he was
17 a tireless litigant for his clients.
18 For example, a dispute between
19 the Borough of Coopersburg and a neighboring
20 community was only recently resolved. Mr. Weirbach
21 remained involved in that dispute for more than two
22 decades. This was long after his retirement, but
23 he was committed to his beloved Coopersburg. Jim’s
24 clients still remember Jim as a fierce advocate, a
25 kind and thoughtful leader and one who had absolute
17
1 dedication to his clients.
2 Outside of the legal community,
3 Jim was President of the Allentown Sertoma Club, a
4 member of Salem United Methodist Church in
5 Allentown, on the Board of Trustees, Pastor Parish
6 Committee and other committees.
7 He was a loyal, faithful,
8 dedicated family man, an accomplished lawyer, and a
9 visionary. His efforts as a family man and lawyer
10 affected many people. Even in his private
11 interests, he affected people.
12 He built a geodesic dome that
13 he had imported from Oregon in his backyard. He
14 winterized and happily grew and experimented with
15 plants for 35 years. It is still present in his
16 backyard. Judge Young was so impressed with Jim’s
17 botanical efforts that he, too, built a greenhouse
18 and enjoys it to this day.
19 Jim was one who quietly made
20 contributions to the greater society, unnoticed,
21 not drawing attention to one’s self, but firmly
22 grounded in the finest principles and attributes of
23 a husband, father and, always professional, lawyer.
24 If you look at the plaque when you come into this
25 building on the right-hand side, you’ll see his
18
1 name under the Planning Committee.
2 Jim will be missed by all who
3 knew him and by others who unknowingly benefit from
4 his selfless contributions to the Bar and this
5 community. Every lawyer in Lehigh County has to
6 acknowledge, if truly cognizant of Jim’s efforts
7 and contributions to the Bar, Court and community,
8 that today we are in a better position for Jim’s
9 efforts over his 52-year legal career.
10 Who was Jim Weirbach? One who
11 by his efforts and character has quietly
12 contributed to the Lehigh County legal community
13 and local community. On behalf of both
14 communities, I say thank you Attorney Weirbach.
15 (Whereupon, the memorial
16 honoring James L. Weirbach concluded.)
17 * * *
18 PRESIDENT JUDGE MCGINLEY: For
19 those of you who are standing in the back, there
20 are some seats in the front row. And you may also
21 sit in the jury box if you would like to have a
22 seat for the remainder of the memorials.
23 MS. HARRIS: May it please the
24 Court of Common Pleas, distinguished other Judges,
25 esteemed colleagues, Susan Kuss Egan and other
19
1 valued family members of the deceased.
2 Attorney Michael J. Egan, III,
3 died Friday, January 20th of last year at Phoebe
4 Home in Allentown. He was the husband of Susan
5 Kuss Egan who is here with us this morning. Mike
6 is survived by his son Michael J. Egan, IV, of
7 Naples, Florida and his wife, Elise; daughter
8 Alicia Egan Kelly and her husband Tim of Lititz,
9 Pennsylvania; stepchildren David White of Pompano
10 Beach, Florida; Peter White and his wife Christine
11 of Macungie; Karen Salon and her husband Jonathan
12 of Hingham, Massachusetts; six grandchildren and
13 seven step-grandchildren.
14 Michael attended Central
15 Catholic High School and graduated from Allentown
16 High School. He received a Bachelor of Science
17 Degree in Business Administration from Muhlenberg
18 College. While a student at Muhlenberg, Mike began
19 nearly full-time work for the Call-Chronicle
20 newspapers with intentions of becoming a
21 journalist. After college, Mike served in the U.S.
22 Army from 1957 to 1959, stationed in Germany where
23 he set up Army division newspapers, working for
24 Stars and Stripes and the Army Network, and where
25 he played tennis for the U.S. Army teams.
20
1 Mike graduated from Dickinson
2 Law School. He was awarded the Book Award in
3 contract law, and served as vice president of his
4 class and editor of the law school newspaper.
5 From 1962 to ’66, he served as
6 Attorney and Tax Law Specialist in the Individual
7 and Corporate Ruling Divisions in the National
8 Office of the Internal Revenue Service in
9 Washington, D.C. Subsequently, he joined the
10 Easton Attorney Norman Peil, also a former IRS
11 attorney, to establish the law firm of Peil &
12 Egan, P.C., with offices in Allentown, Easton and,
13 later, Bethlehem. The firm’s former Allentown
14 office is now part of the site of the Allentown
15 Arts Park and the Michael J. Egan Walkway which
16 connects the Arts Park to the Baum School of Art.
17 It was my pleasure to work with
18 Michael Egan for the first time in 1992 when I
19 called to ask his opinion regarding an unusual tax
20 and estate planning issue. I had heard other
21 lawyers and accountants speak of his expertise and
22 approachability in complicated estate and tax
23 matters. A year or two later, Norm Peil and Mike
24 Egan lost their younger partner and my friend,
25 former IRS Attorney Bob Horne, to a fatal illness.
21
1 Ready to reenter the world of private law firm
2 practice, I approached Norm and Mike about joining
3 them as an associate and was thrilled to do so a
4 few months later.
5 Mike was an excellent mentor:
6 approachable, wise, skilled in his field of tax,
7 estates, trusts and corporations. He was more than
8 even-tempered: a good judge of people, and generous
9 with his time and expertise.
10 I was surprised by the
11 magnitude and kinds of tax controversies he
12 handled. He obviously loved the intellectual and
13 mathematical components that the practice of tax
14 law offered, but he loved working with people too.
15 Mike prided himself on never having lost a fraud
16 case. He handled some very big tax cases, and did
17 so steadily and methodically, quietly assessing the
18 relative strengths and weaknesses of the case
19 before achieving an impressive resolution.
20 Mike was a perfect complement
21 to his partner Norm Peil, who was quiet, extremely
22 focused, fast-moving and intense. Together, they
23 were a formidable team of tax advisors who saw eye
24 to eye without exception on substantive matters and
25 had enormous respect for each other.
22
1 Mike and his wife, Susan, were
2 a splendid couple and a team who always seemed so
3 happy in each other’s company. Over the years, I
4 was fortunate to partake in Mike and Susan’s
5 hospitality, enjoying many summer evenings outside
6 their lovely home and garden near Lehigh Country
7 Club in the company of close friends. Mike’s
8 health challenges increased, and Susan was, as
9 ever, a hard-working, cheerful, devoted and
10 extremely able, active companion. It was obvious
11 that Mike adored her and was enormously grateful
12 for all of the ways in which Susan had changed and
13 enhanced his life.
14 When I moved my practice to
15 Tallman, Hudders & Sorrentino in 2000, Mike was at
16 once understanding and gracious. It was a
17 difficult decision given what terrific mentors I
18 had had and what a great friend Mike had become.
19 So I was delighted when my new partners at Tallman
20 Hudders agreed to extend Mike an invitation to move
21 his practice to our firm when Peil & Egan
22 dissolved. It was a fine association for all of us
23 and it allowed Mike to recalibrate his practice,
24 particularly as he experienced some health issues
25 and spent fewer days at the office and more days
23
1 working from home.
2 If I had to identify Mike’s
3 qualities which I would most like to emulate, they
4 would be:
5 1. Intellectual curiosity.
6 This is a quality that has no substitute. At the
7 end of the busiest work day, Mike would gather up
8 an interesting new book or periodical to read that
9 evening and liked to discuss it with us at his next
10 opportunity.
11 2. Outlook. Mike believed he
12 was the luckiest person he knew. He often pointed
13 out people who seemed to have a black cloud over
14 their heads, hoping that their circumstances would
15 improve. I’ve often wondered whether Mike
16 succeeded in fending off his many medical issues he
17 faced later in life for so long because of his
18 positive view of life and people.
19 3. Kindness. It’s easy to be
20 kind in a vacuum, when the world is wagging your
21 way. Mike was good at being kind to people when it
22 was not necessarily easy or popular.
23 4. Calorie restriction. Mike
24 loved the idea of food and the concept of a meal.
25 He would describe in detail the dinner Susan was
24
1 preparing that evening or a meal he had enjoyed at
2 a local restaurant with her the day before. He was
3 a proud member of the Chain des Rotisseurs — an
4 international gastronomic society — and often
5 showed us their event menus which included
6 wonderful courses and selected wines. In reality,
7 however, he ate very little, often pushing the food
8 around on his plate. It was easy to see how he
9 maintained his svelte frame for his entire life.
10 5. Humanity. Simply put, Mike
11 had no ego.
12 And, finally:
13 6. Love for family. The well
14 of love and pride — although I suspect it was
15 sometimes a very quiet love and pride — which he
16 had for Susan, his children, Alicia and Michael,
17 Susan’s children, and their grandchildren was deep
18 and enormous and constant.
19 How grateful we all should be
20 to have had the gift of Attorney Michael Egan.
21 (Whereupon, the memorial
22 honoring Michael J. Egan concluded.)
23 * * *
24 MR. PERRY: May it please the
25 Court, President Judge McGinley, the Honorable
25
1 Judges of the Court, retired Judges, distinguished
2 guests, family and friends of Richard H. Rauch, and
3 my colleagues.
4 Richard H. Rauch was born on
5 October 20, 1916, in Noxon, Wyoming County,
6 Pennsylvania. He attended Noxon High School,
7 Muhlenberg College, and he graduated from Temple
8 Law School in 1939.
9 Dick married Beatrice Stimmel
10 on August 4th of 1943 in Trexlertown. They have a
11 daughter, Rebecca, and two grandchildren, Eric and
12 Carin. Beatrice died December 8, 2011; and Dick
13 died March 2, 2012, at the age of 95.
14 For those of you that are old
15 enough to remember Judge James F. Henninger; Jim
16 was the uncle to Dick. Dick belonged to many civic
17 organizations. The Masons, the Lower Lehigh Lions,
18 Alburtis and Macungie Fire Companies, and the
19 Shriners.
20 He was a sole practitioner, and
21 he limited his practice to estate planning, estate
22 administration, real estate and business matters.
23 In May of 1941, the Governor
24 appointed Dick as Associate Legal Advisor to
25 Registrants for the local draft board #4 in
26
1 Allentown under the Selective Service and Training
2 Act of 1940.
3 He enjoyed hunting, fishing and
4 trapping at his mountain cabin in Wyoming County,
5 Pennsylvania. He and his wife Beatrice did some
6 traveling, including a photography safari to
7 Africa. He enjoyed photography as a hobby, and he
8 enjoyed woodworking and furniture refinishing.
9 He had a keen sense of humor.
10 He was generous to a fault. He would give anyone
11 anything he could. I knew Dick for 50 years. From
12 1960 to 1990, I knew him as a fellow lawyer.
13 Although he retired from active practice in 1990 at
14 the age of 72, I continued to know him as a friend
15 and a client.
16 While he was actively
17 practicing, I enjoyed working with him. He was
18 always prepared, humble, dignified, kind, generous
19 and compassionate. He also was understanding and
20 sharing with his legal knowledge.
21 I learned a lot from his
22 example and I will miss him greatly. Thank you.
23 (Whereupon, the memorial
24 honoring Richard Rauch concluded.)
25 * * *
27
1 MS. LUTHER-VENO: May it please
2 the Court, President Judge McGinley, Honorable
3 Judges, Judge Brenner, Judge Gardner, distinguished
4 guests and family, Mrs. Parker and family, and
5 colleagues.
6 I met Andrew Parker in 1997
7 when I was a new attorney and had decided to launch
8 a solo practice. I needed to find an attorney who
9 would share office expenses, and, hopefully, share
10 some of his wisdom in the legal profession.
11 Boy, did Andrew Parker fill the
12 bill. Andy, as he was known to his friends and
13 colleagues, had worked a lot of places and done a
14 lot of things. He had worked on civil cases and
15 criminal cases. He’d been a solo practitioner, a
16 partner, a prosecutor, a city attorney, a corporate
17 attorney, a justice of the peace, and an attorney
18 with the state of Pennsylvania. He’d worked for
19 the FBI. He’d worked in Pennsylvania, in Utah, in
20 Nebraska. He even ran for a seat in Congress. He
21 had a thousand war stories and a thousand of them
22 were interesting. Andy always had a love of
23 justice and was always passionate about righting
24 wrongs. Constitutional law was the love of his
25 legal life.
28
1 Andy was a native of Sunbury,
2 Pennsylvania. He served his country honorably as
3 an Army Air Corpsman during World War II. He
4 earned his undergraduate degree at Bucknell
5 University and his law degree from Georgetown
6 University.
7 Andy was tireless. He
8 continued in private practice even when many other
9 attorneys would have retired. He returned to
10 Sunbury from Allentown in recent years and
11 continued his passionate representation of clients
12 for as long as his health permitted him.
13 Andy had a quick wit and was an
14 interesting individual outside of his legal work.
15 He was a history buff who one time told me he had
16 evidence that the Scottish side of his family had a
17 valid land claim dating back to the 1700s in
18 Conshohocken. He said he tried to pursue this one
19 time, but it went nowhere. He told me, only half
20 joking, that he actually had a claim to the entire
21 community of Conshohocken. I said, “Good luck with
22 that, Andy,” but I had no doubt that if anyone
23 could doggedly pursue this, he could, if only he
24 had more time.
25 Among his career highlights was
29
1 the case of Moyer v. Phillips. He had taken this
2 case to the state supreme court and changed state
3 law relating to certain survival actions. You
4 could look it up, as he’d often tell me.
5 Andy loved and was immensely
6 proud of his family: his wife Linda and four
7 children, Andrea Decker, Jessica Viva, Meredith
8 Parker-Shea and Matthew Parker. And everyone could
9 tell that the children were also proud of their
10 dad. Andy was also a grandpa to four grandsons
11 that he loved, Jeffrey, Chase, Tighe and Roman.
12 I remember one summer several
13 years ago when Andy and Linda’s son Matt was
14 playing in a rock band. The group was fairly
15 successful regionally, nationally, and Andy was
16 very proud of the band’s accomplishments. Andy
17 invited my husband and me to a summer festival in
18 Coplay to see the band, Aztek Trip, perform locally
19 one evening. We got to the park and were
20 immediately lost. We found the polka band. “This
21 couldn’t be it, could it?” “No. Keep walking,”
22 people told us. “Up the hill.”
23 So we went up the hill to where
24 the raucous and pretty loud alternative band was
25 playing. That must be it. We knew we were in the
30
1 right place when we found Andy, a huge smile on his
2 face, tapping his foot to the music, and blending
3 right in with the young crowd. The evening was
4 exuberant and wonderful; and, of all the people in
5 attendance, I think Andy enjoyed it most of all.
6 He was there with his family having a great time.
7 Andy may have been the oldest person there, but he
8 was younger at heart than many others.
9 When we shared that office on
10 Walbert Avenue, I was constantly amazed at how much
11 stuff — how many files and documents — a lawyer
12 could accumulate. Andy had a ton of stuff and a
13 ton of documents; but he could always find
14 absolutely anything he needed to find. One item he
15 moved into his office was a huge safe that he used
16 for wills; it seemed to weigh a ton. It was the
17 kind of safe one would see in old Westerns during a
18 bank scene. Somehow Andy had acquired this safe
19 along the way. He moved it before, and I always
20 marvelled at his perseverance in moving it again.
21 When it came time for us to leave that office, he
22 doubted he could take it. I know he hated to part
23 with that huge old safe. I never found out if he
24 found anyone to move it. It may still be there,
25 and I hope someone else found as good a use for it
31
1 as Andy did.
2 A quotation attributed to
3 Abraham Lincoln goes, “I am an optimist because I
4 don’t see the point in being anything else.”
5 Andrew Parker was an optimist of the best kind:
6 always trying to do the best for his clients,
7 believing in their cases, taking a case to the
8 highest level if need be. He was excited to take
9 on each new case and truly loved what he did for a
10 living. He loved his family and was loved by them.
11 I’m glad to have known Andrew
12 Parker. The world was a better place for Andrew
13 Parker having lived in it.
14 (Whereupon, the memorial
15 honoring Andrew K. Parker concluded.)
16 * * *
17 MR. HERMAN: May it please the
18 Court, honored guests, my colleagues, JoEllen,
19 Judy, John and Mary.
20 It is with great sadness that I
21 stand in front of you to honor the life of my
22 contemporary and friend John Krajsa. John died
23 suddenly on November 9, 2012, while celebrating his
24 30th wedding anniversary in the Dominican Republic
25 with his beautiful and loving wife, JoEllen Kennedy
32
1 Krajsa.
2 It’s hard not to dwell on the
3 loss of a good husband, father, grandfather,
4 friend, businessman and important member of our
5 community; but let’s celebrate John’s life and
6 remember all of the remarkable things he
7 accomplished and how wonderful his life was.
8 John’s life was an example of
9 the fulfillment of the American success story.
10 Over a hundred years ago, John’s grandparents
11 emigrated to Allentown. His grandparents
12 eventually opened a grocery store. In this
13 business, John’s grandfather at times extended
14 credit to his customers. This planted the seed for
15 the Krajsas’ lending business that has continued to
16 this day. His grandparents thrived and sent all
17 three of their children to college, including
18 John’s father. John’s father and mother then
19 started a lending business in Allentown, AFC First
20 Financial Corporation, extending credit to
21 consumers who at the time did not have any other
22 access to credit. This set the stage for John’s
23 career.
24 John was a graduate of Central
25 Catholic High School. He then went to Villanova
33
1 University where he was a member of the Villanova
2 Singers and Alpha Phi Omega, a national service
3 fraternity. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from
4 Georgetown Law School, and later received an LLM in
5 Taxation from Temple University Law School.
6 After law school, John served
7 as an attorney for the United States Department of
8 Agriculture in Washington, D.C. In this position
9 he helped create the rural industrial loan program.
10 John served our country as a Captain in the United
11 States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War.
12 He eventually returned to
13 Allentown where he practiced pension and tax law
14 before he joined the family business on a full-time
15 basis. He was named Chairman of the business in
16 1991. At the time of his death, John was President
17 of AFC Reverse Mortgage which he founded in 2004.
18 He was one of only 50 certified reverse mortgage
19 professionals in the nation.
20 Throughout his career, John was
21 active in our community. He was a member of the
22 Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the
23 Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation. He
24 was President of the St. Thomas More Society, a
25 diocesan organization of Catholic lawyers, judges
34
1 and political leaders. He was a member of the
2 Finance and Golf Committees of the Greater Lehigh
3 Valley Chamber of Commerce. He was Chairman of the
4 Allentown Area Hospital Authority, past Chairman of
5 the Lehigh County Industrial Development Authority,
6 past Chairman of the Cedar Crest College Board of
7 Associates, past member of the Lehigh Valley
8 Planning Commission, past Chairman of the Banking
9 and Securities and Law Committees of the
10 Pennsylvania Financial Services Association, and a
11 past member of the Law Committee of the American
12 Financial Services Association. He taught Business
13 Law at Penn State University. He was a Rotarian
14 and actively involved in the student exchange
15 program. John was an active parishioner in St.
16 Thomas More, involved as a volunteer in a variety
17 of ways, and a member of the Men of St. Thomas
18 service organization. He was a volunteer for Meals
19 on Wheels.
20 John met his wife JoEllen when
21 she came to Allentown to attend Cedar Crest
22 College. John’s parents lived near Cedar Crest and
23 frequently opened their home to Cedar Crest
24 students. JoEllen was one of those students.
25 John and JoEllen raised three
35
1 wonderful children. Their daughter, Judith, wife
2 of Paul Cannon. Judith and Paul are parents to
3 John and JoEllen’s beloved grandson, Owen. Their
4 son, John III is a student at Drexel University
5 School of Law. And their daughter, Mary, a student
6 at Elizabethtown College.
7 It is sad that John’s life
8 ended so soon. He was a bright, energetic and
9 positive person. I have the sense that he would
10 not want us to be sad, but to remember all the
11 great moments we shared.
12 John was in every respect a
13 gentleman. We all will miss him and never forget
14 him.
15 (Whereupon, the memorial
16 honoring John Louis Krajsa, Jr., concluded.)
17 * * *
18 MS. SCHWARTZ: May it please
19 the Court, President Judge McGinley, honorable
20 Judges, distinguished guests, family, friends and
21 colleagues of Jay Scherline.
22 Anyone who knew Jay realized
23 that he was a very special person. His exuberance
24 and desire to help those in need was unmatched.
25 When someone would ask him, “How are you,” he would
36
1 often reply, “I never had a better day.” He
2 enjoyed being an attorney and that came through to
3 anybody who had contact with him. He was
4 energetic, funny, and clients loved him.
5 I first met Jay in around 1980
6 when I was deciding whether to attend law school.
7 Jay and I were from the same hometown in New
8 Jersey. He almost always let clients in on that,
9 as he often introduced me as his sister or he would
10 tell them I went to high school with his brother.
11 One statement was obviously untrue, although
12 probably 25 percent of the clients would ask me,
13 “Are you really his sister?” And the latter
14 statement was, in fact, accurate; Jay’s brother and
15 I were in the same high school class.
16 So as a junior attending
17 Muhlenberg College, I was deciding if I was going
18 to venture into the job market or delay the real
19 world challenges and continue on to law school. My
20 mother suggested, “Why don’t you go see Jay
21 Scherline and see if he has some advice for you?”
22 Jay at the time had an office on a first floor
23 walk-up above the Italian deli and Wood Lane
24 Pharmacy on Throckmorton Lane in Old Bridge, New
25 Jersey. I remember a very small office covered in
37
1 wood paneling with very few furnishings and a desk.
2 I cannot recall the details of the conversation,
3 but it must have impressed me enough that I
4 enrolled in law school.
5 Fast forward some 18 years
6 later, when, by happenstance, our paths crossed
7 again. My husband took a job in Allentown, and I
8 found myself having to look for a new position. I
9 called Jay at the office after I sat for the PA
10 Bar. It was somewhat of an unusual conversation
11 because we were talking, and then the next minute I
12 remember thinking, “Who is he talking to? Is he
13 talking to me?” Unbeknownst to me at the time, Jay
14 was the king of multitasking before multitasking
15 was in vogue. He was talking to me while talking
16 to his secretary, checking his e-mail and handling
17 another call all at the same time.
18 He invited me to his home to
19 break the fast on Yom Kippur even though he really
20 didn’t know me. But that was the essence of Jay.
21 He did everything he could to make you feel welcome
22 and comfortable, notwithstanding where you were
23 from, what language you spoke, or what
24 socioeconomic background you came from. He would
25 often try to make clients feel more comfortable by
38
1 speaking their native language. He would tell
2 Spanish speaking clients that it was “necessario in
3 Nueve New York in the Bronx to habla Espanol,” and
4 although he wasn’t fluent, they understood him and
5 felt comfortable dealing with him.
6 Jay and I would often go
7 together to survey the scene of an accident. I
8 would always drive because Jay’s reputation for not
9 keeping his eyes on the road preceded him. He was
10 always a well-connected guy, electronically that
11 is. A cell phone, a Blackberry, a navigation
12 system in the car, and the inevitable phone calls
13 and text messages while we were on the road. When
14 we arrived on scene, we always took photographs,
15 or, should I say, Jay always took photographs of
16 the entire area. It was not unusual for him to
17 straddle the double yellow line of a four-lane
18 road, squatting as if he was sitting in a vehicle
19 while I kept a lookout, yelling to him, “Jay, look
20 out, a car is coming.” “Jay, watch out.” He would
21 always stand there just a little too long and made
22 me very nervous. All I needed was a headline:
23 “Prominent Personal Injury Attorney Struck by
24 Vehicle While Investigating a Case.” He was a
25 little too daring for me. Tractor trailer trucks
39
1 would be whizzing by and he would be walking along
2 the side of road, and the entire time I was saying,
3 “Let’s get out of here Jay, we have enough.” But
4 Jay had to be satisfied that he got every angle and
5 every viewpoint so that we could go back to the
6 office to consider whether we had some type of
7 roadway issue. It shows the high level of
8 commitment Jay had, to put his own life in harm’s
9 way to best represent his client’s interest. We
10 will continue his legacy with that same level of
11 commitment to represent clients at Scherline &
12 Associates.
13 Sometimes the trips were quite
14 a distance away to accident scenes or client’s
15 houses when they were unable to get to the office.
16 During these trips, Jay and I would talk and talk
17 and talk. Rarely was there ever silence in the
18 car. We talked about the office. We talked about
19 cases. We talked about his boys Justin and Lyell.
20 He was so proud of them, what they had been able to
21 accomplish. Justin getting his real estate license
22 and trying to make it in New York; and Lyell
23 becoming fluent in Spanish and getting his MBA in
24 Argentina presented entirely in Spanish.
25 Anyone who knew Jay well knew
40
1 that timeliness was not his strong suit. We would
2 be scheduled to go to a client or go to a scene of
3 an accident, and we were always late. He always
4 wanted to do one last thing before we left the
5 office, whether it would be answering e-mails or
6 dictating on correspondence that came in on a file;
7 both of which still would have been there when we
8 got back, but he had to get it done now. Jay’s
9 secretary would yell out, “Watch your time, boss,”
10 and Jay would respond, “Okay, just another minute.”
11 And this would go on two or three more times. But
12 Jay always wanted to get it done for the client
13 now. He was not one for letting things sit.
14 Jay’s focus on the office and
15 his clients was enviable. He wanted to make sure
16 that every client was happy. When they came into
17 the office they were received with a warm greeting,
18 a big smile and bigger sense of humor. The clients
19 related to him as someone who was knowledgeable in
20 the law, passionate and funny. They always left
21 the office feeling as if: “He is going to take
22 care of me and he is my friend.”
23 Jay’s pro bono work,
24 philanthropic causes and community service efforts
25 are too numerous to mention here. He has been
41
1 extolled by every major charity in the Lehigh
2 Valley for not only his monetary donations, but his
3 actual work for so many causes. But one of the
4 many awards he received does deserve mentioning.
5 Of all the awards, he was most proud of the Legal
6 Eagle Award he received in 2001. Anyone who came
7 to the office could see this award proudly and
8 prominently displayed, and Jay was quick to point
9 it out to everyone. It was such an honor to Jay
10 and his family when the Bar Association
11 posthumously awarded the 2012 Legal Eagle Award to
12 Jay. He would have been so proud yet again to
13 receive such a great honor.
14 Although he was involved in so
15 many endeavors, the love of his family was
16 unyielding. Lorrie worked side by side with Jay at
17 Scherline & Associates and supported him in every
18 endeavor. You often saw them together, shoulder to
19 shoulder at the many philanthropic and charitable
20 events. We will never hear him buzz down to Lorrie
21 and say, “What’s up, doll?” or “Have you heard from
22 the boys?” but we know that Jay’s warmhearted and
23 generous deeds will live on forever.
24 (Whereupon, the memorial
25 honoring Jay A. Scherline concluded.)
42
1 * * *
2 MR. KNAUER: To all our
3 speakers, thank you very much for helping us
4 appreciate more deeply our colleagues. Family
5 members who are here today and those who were not
6 able to be here, thank you for participating in our
7 tradition. And to our audience of friends and
8 colleagues, thank you for being here.
9 Finally, I’d like to mention
10 that you’re invited in the hallway immediately
11 adjacent to the courtroom for refreshments.
12 President Judge McGinley.
13 Thank you.
14 PRESIDENT JUDGE MCGINLEY:
15 Thank you, Mr. Knauer. Each member of the Court
16 has treasured memories of those memorialized today.
17 And we have spoken of them often in our Judge’s
18 meetings and when we encounter each other; because
19 this year, unfortunately, we did lose many lions of
20 the Bar Association.
21 The Court wants to express our
22 appreciation to the Bar Association for continuing
23 this tradition. To John Baker, Esquire, the
24 Chairman of the Committee for his hard work and
25 making this and previous Bar Memorials a success.
43
1 To the speakers who have
2 memorialized our departed colleagues; they have
3 helped continue a great tradition and allowed us to
4 share in the lives of our departed members, and to
5 learn or to be reminded of some of the qualities we
6 wish to emulate. Our heart is full of gratitude
7 for their lives and for the commitment to the
8 principles of justice, and the Court is gratified
9 by the attendance of all who came today to
10 remember.
11 The official court reporter is
12 directed to transcribe the notes and testimony and
13 to make a digital copy of the Memorial available to
14 the Bar Association of Lehigh County. This was
15 done for the first time in 2002, and the Bar
16 Association publishes these transcripts on its home
17 page at www.lehighbar.org. Anyone interested in a
18 copy will be able to read, print or download it
19 from that site.
20 We are also gratified today to
21 see our former colleagues here with us or other
22 judges. Senior Judge Platt, who is assigned to the
23 Superior Court, Senior Judge Brenner, Federal Judge
24 Gardner, Federal Magistrate Perkin, and retired
25 Judge Young.
44
1 At this time, we’ll adjourn the
2 ceremony. When we do so, it will be out of respect
3 for our departed colleagues and in honor of the
4 profession of law and its honorable traditions in
5 Lehigh County.
6 Mr. Warmkessel, you may
7 adjourn.
8 MR. WARMKESSEL: All rise
9 please. This memorial session is adjourned.
10 (Whereupon, the memorial
11 ceremony concluded.)
12 * * *
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CERTIFICATION
I hereby certify that the proceedings are
contained fully and accurately in the notes taken
by me of the above cause, and that this is a
correct transcript of the same.
Date ERIN ALEXANDER, RPR
JUDGE’S CERTIFICATION
The foregoing record of the proceedings in
the within matter is directed to be filed.
Date CAROL K. MCGINLEY, P.J.