"Lawyer, Soldier, Patriot !"
Article from Lackawanna Jurist
By Paul E. Pendel
"For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, Because our days upon earth are a shadow !" - Job
In the fore part of the last century, Leigh Hunt, in his short but exquisite essay on the "Deaths of Little Children," said that the occasional loss of a child "seems to be one of these necessary bitters thrown into the cup of humanity." Today, in the middle part of our own century, we repeat his observation with respect to the growing number of comparatively young men who pass our midst with disturbing suddenness, but we pause to ask whether they can be somehow avoided. The experts are puzzled; the rest of humanity hopefully waits for an answer. May we have it soon!
These thoughts arise because of the young men who are taken away at a time when their families need them most, and the community can ill afford the loss. One of them was a member of our Bar - a man in the forty-seventh year of his life, who was taken at a time when his dreams for the welfare and happiness of his family were at their brightest. He was James J. Powell Jr., Esquire, and as we have said, he was a lawyer, soldier and patriot.
As we look back to recapture the personality of James J. Powell Jr., we see a young man of pleasing countenance, ready to salute his friends with an infectious smile, anxious to exchange the pleasantries of the day, and if necessity importuned, most willing to offer any required aid. He was quiet, courteous and considerate; but these fine qualities did not diminish the vigor of his service in behalf of his clients, to whose causes he gave unstintingly of his time and effort. He has persistence and tenacity without offensiveness, but could yield where compromise offered the best solution for all concerned. This writer did not have many matters with him, but in all causes where opposite sides of the table were necessary, "Jimmy" was always found to be fair, honorable and honest, and separation was always congenial and most pleasant. He was always the gentleman.
James Powell's experience in the war tempered his view of life considerably and lastingly; his subsequent illness emphasized its transitoriness, and although congenial and never pessimistic, his philosophy of life was summed up in this passage from Job: "Man that is born of woman is of a few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down. He fleeth as a shadow, and continueth not."
But as a supplement to this philosophy, he took hope and courage from the following lines of Sir Walter Raleigh, said to have been written the night before his death:
"Even such is time, that takes in trust
Our youth , our joys, our all we have
And pays us but with earth and dust
Who, in the dark and silent grave
When we have wandered all our ways
Shuts up the story of our days
But from this earth, this grave, this dust
My God shall raise me up, I trust !"
The Bar paid him high tribute in eloquent and glowing eulogy at a Memorial Meeting held in honor of his memory at noon on Friday, April 3, 1959, in the Superior Courtroom of our Courthouse. The large attendance attested his popularity among the members of our profession, and the respect and admiration in which he was held by all who knew him. They who spoke were the Honorable Michael J. Eagen, a Judge of our Court of Common Pleas; Daniel H. Jenkins, United States District Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania; Ralph P. Needle, President of the Lackawanna Bar Association; Honorable Hugh J. McMenamin, State Senator representing the 22nd Senatorial District of Pennsylvania; and Richard P. Conaboy, Esq.
His life merited that praise; and in the light of that praise, and in the merit of his ideals and accomplishments, we trust, for such is our hopeful prayer. That he has found deserving favor in the sight of that infinite power we call God, and that his body may find perpetual peace and rest where it was laid with loving hands.
The Memorial Resolution, which was read at the meeting by Morris Gelb, Esquire, one of Mr. Powell's former associates, and which was adopted unanimously, follows immediately.
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MEMORIAL RESOLUTION ON THE PASSING OF
ATTORNEY JAMES J. POWELL
The announcement of the sudden death of James J. Powell on March 20, 1959, after a busy day at his office, struck deep and shocking note in our lives, causing many of us to pause and look around us. To those of us who have so contemplated or will take the time to consider the uncertainty of the span of life, it becomes inevitable that a new sense of values, for the time being at least, take possession of our human minds. The mortal existence of our departed and beloved brother presents itself at the same moment in its sorrow and splendor.
He was a man of great generosity of heart and spirit. Not only was he greatly respected as a man of high standards in the community, but his simple dignity of life, his sense of duty to country, his gay charms and happy nature, his courage in war and peace, his example as husband and father in his own family circle, revealed the solid distinguished aspects of his character.
James J. Powell was born at the family home at Minooka, now a part of the City of Scranton, on April 10, 1912. His father, the late James J. Powell, Sr., who was one of the most distinguished and prominent members of the Lackawanna County Bar, died suddenly on April 11, 1944. Mr. Powell, Sr., was also born in Minooka; at the age of 14 he was employed as a breaker boy in the coal industry. His father was admitted to the Bar in March 1906 and became one of the busiest lawyers of the Bar.
His mother was the former Miss Mary M. Boland, sister of the late Congressman Patrick J. Boland who died May 18, 1942.
Attorney Powell attended Woodrow Wilson Elementary School at Minooka and St. Thomas High School where he graduated in 1931, at which time he was president of the Senior Class. While at the University of Scranton he was very active in many organizations. At the time of his graduation with an A.B. degree in June, 1935, he was also president of the Senior Class.
As a youth he acquired a wealth of experience available to a limited number of young men of his age in the position he held as pair clerk in the United States House of Representatives from 1935 until 1939. During this period, he attended Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C., from which he graduated in 1939. Upon passing the Pennsylvania Bar examination and completion of his clerkship, he was admitted on May 27, 1940, to practice before the various courts of Lackawanna County on motion of his father. Thereupon, he became a junior partner in the firm of Powell, Eagen and Powell. In due course he was admitted to practice in our Federal District Court on May 28, 1940; again on motion of his father he was admitted to the Pennsylvania Superior Court on March 5, 1940; while a private in the Army he became a member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on May 28, 1941 on motion of the late David J. Reedy, Sr., then President of the Lackawanna Bar Association.
Attorney Powell's war record is not only distinguished but reflects his ideals which were so firm and so high and so integral a part of him that they did not need profession or utterance. He enlisted in the 109th Infantry Regiment in February, 1941 as a private, shortly before that unit was inducted into Federal Service. He was the first member of the Lackawanna County Bar Training School at Fort Benning, Georgia, he was commissioned an officer in the Infantry and assigned to the Corps of Engineers.
Overseas he participated in many engagements, including the invasion of Normandy in June, 1944 while serving with the 6th Engineers Special Brigade.
His military career was most extraordinary as is attested by the fact that on the same day, October 30, 1945, he received three decorations from three different governments:
From the United States he received the Bronze Star Medal for bravery.
From the then General, and now President of France, Charles de Gaulle, he received the Croix de Guerre, Etoil d' Argent, "... for exceptional war services rendered in the course of operations for the liberation of France."
The people of the City of Antwerp, Belgium, presented him with a Certificate of Appreciation and a token of gratitude for his work as Commanding Officer of the 79th Port Company, 487 Port Balallion, in the Port of Antwerp during the 175 days of continuous enemy air and V-weapons attacks between October 7, 1944 and March 30, 1945.
On April 10, 1944 while serving as a Captain he was married to Miss Joan Hopgood, South Wales, in St. Helen's Roman Catholic Church, Barry, Wales. His wife had been doing hospital and ambulance Civil Defense work. After serving nearly five years in the Army, of which 31 months were spent overseas, he was discharged from service in November 1946. Thereafter, he re-enlisted in the 109th Infantry Regiment when that unit was reorganized and he commanded Company D here for some time. This is the same company in which he had enlisted as a private in 1941.
During his short lifetime, Attorney Powell participated in many of the leading civic, fraternal and political affairs of our community. For many years, he was the Solicitor for Lackawanna Township, its School District, the Borough of Moosic, the Moosic School District and the Spring Brook School District. He was considered an expert on school and municipal law.
In recent years, he had been associated in the practice of law with his brother, Christopher, who was admitted in Lackawanna County on June 10, 1957 upon motion of James J. Powell.
Of his father, it was said: "He lived his whole life in and loved his hometown of Minooka which he often referred to as the 'Fifth Province of Ireland.' He loved its people and its people loved him. He was the family lawyer for every family in the town. He was symbolic of the life in that community."
These things are equal fitting and proper with James J. Powell Jr. There was humor in the stories he loved to tell about the "natives" and in the ways in which he told them. His reminiscences brought him an infectious enjoyment that compelled a responsive sharing from the listeners. His affections for his clients, friends, and neighbors were those of a deep and strong feeling of belonging to a closely-knit neighborhood. His sense of dedication was equally matched with his sense of balance and proportion of justice, fairness and humanity.
As a man, he was cosmopolitan in his attitude to others which transcended nationalities and religions. This is so well reflected by the kinds of friends and clients with whom he came into daily contact. He lived by his ideals that a good lawyer must have integrity and honesty in all matters.
He was a communicant of St. Joseph's Church, Minooka, a member of its Holy Name Society and Scranton Council Knights of Columbus. Among the many other civic, fraternal and veteran organizations in which he had been active were the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Moosic Lions Club, the Purple Club, Dan Beard Boy Scout Council, the Lackawanna Bar Association and Pennsylvania Bar Association.
We, the members of the Lackawanna County Bar Association salute him; we console his brave wife and our compassion and sympathy go out to his five sons, James III, Anthony, Richard, John and Christopher - all excellent prospects for carrying on the Powell tradition in the law, and to his brothers. Attorney Christopher T. Powell and Richard Powell and his five sisters, Mrs. Mary Frances Bourke, Mrs. Rosemary Walsh, Mrs. Grace M. Feeney, Mrs. Gertrude Gallagher and Mrs. Jeanne Cannon; we express our sorrow to the community which he loved so passionately and for which he fought, in uniform and out.
BE IT RESOLVED, THEREFORE, that this Memorial be adopted and placed upon the minutes of the Lackawanna Bar Association, a copy filed to No. 1077 September Term, 1940, which relates to his registration as a law student and admission to the Bar, and that a copy be forwarded to his dear family.
