I was in my last year of law school and I wanted an easy class so that I could get a head start on the preparation for the bar exam. “A view from the Bench” was the title of the class. Perfect.

Then I met Judge Sam Bell. Judge Bell was appointed to be a Federal District Court Judge for the Northern District of Ohio by President Reagan. In this class…. We will read and discuss….. The Federalist Papers…. And how the arguments that prevailed at the time of our constitution…. Are remarkably similar… the arguments that exist today…. That’s the way Judge Bell spoke. Everything was important. He could make lunch sound important. I think…. I will have…. A ham sandwich…

Judge Bell taught me the weight and importance of each word we speak. He taught me to look at words written on a page, in thought, and in law, and see the value of each. We read together and we had wonderful discussions about the 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison that describe the ongoing discussions surrounding the formation of our constitution. The topic was fascinating, the reading was long and tireless, but the most important part was the 3 hours a week we got to spend in the presence of Judge Bell. After I passed the bar, Judge Bell was kind enough to have a private ceremony and swear me in. It is still one of the highlights of my career. 

Following his death, the dean of the Akron School of Law wrote of him, “The late Judge Sam H. Bell (’52) saw the powerful effect of, and beauty in, words.”

To quote Judge Bell himself: 

I have also come to love the smell of the leather bindings on the books, the sight of the sunlight on the courtroom walls, the sounds of voices ceaselessly urging some point of view, and the recollection of the many faces the lawyer and the judge see and remember. These are the faces of one’s friends, allies, and sometimes adversaries at the bar; the faces of countless criminal defendants, and the eyes of their wives and children; the etched anguish of the victims; the faces of litigants who sought recompense for injuries suffered and of those whose business interest required relief to prevent further wrongs; the faces of the poor, the rich, the helpless, the ignoble, the good and the bad—all somehow comprising a part of the rich tapestry of the practice of the law and the work of the judiciary.

That was Sam Bell. He taught me that words matter.  

Do you have someone in your life that defines a job in your field? To this day, when I think of the word Judge, I think of Sam Bell. He was kind. He was patient. He was firm. He was the personification of the gentleman lawyer.