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Bar News - May 17, 2002 In Memoriam - Louis C. Wyman A FORMER U.S. Representative, NH attorney general and NH Superior Court judge, Louis C. Wyman died May 5, 2002, at his home in West Palm Beach, Fla., at the age of 85 after a battle with cancer. Wyman was born in Manchester on March 16, 1917, the son of Alice (Crosby) and Louis Eliot Wyman. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1938 and from Harvard University Law School, cum laude, in 1941. Upon graduation from Harvard, Wyman became an associate in the law firm of Ropes & Grey in Boston before leaving for military service in World War II, which he completed in 1946 as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. After the war, he joined his father's firm of Wyman, Starr, Booth, Wadleigh & Landgell in Manchester. Wyman served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Campaign Investigating Committee, secretary to U.S. Sen. Styles Bridges, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and general counsel to the joint Senate and House committee monitoring the European Recovery Program in the years following his military service. In 1949, Wyman returned to NH as a partner in his law firm, where he assisted in the successful defense of the celebrated Dr. Hermann N. Sanders "mercy death" trial. Wyman was appointed attorney general of New Hampshire in 1943 and in 1957 was elected president of the National Association of Attorneys General. In 1962, he was elected to Congress from NH's First Congressional District and served five terms. While in Congress, he served on the House Appropriations Committee and the sub-committee on defense, where he was instrumental in saving the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard from being closed. Wyman's career was marked by the social turbulence of the 1950s and '60s - including his work as attorney general in investigating individuals suspected as "Communist sympathizers" and his vote cast against the Civil Rights Act in 1963. In 1974, Wyman was elected to the U.S. Senate by two votes in the closest Senate election in history. He served briefly in the Senate through months of investigations, recounts and finally a second election, which resulted in the seat being awarded to Democrat John Durkin. Wyman was appointed a justice of the NH Superior Court in 1978, a position in which he served until his retirement in 1987. Survivors include his wife of 64 years, Virginia (Markley) Wyman; a daughter, Jo Ann Wyman Coughlin of Birmingham, Mich.; a son, Louis E. Wyman, II of Portsmouth; and two grandchildren. A memorial service will be held for Wyman in New Hampshire. The date of that service had not yet been determined at press time. From his military and political service to his role in saving the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to his "glory days" as NH attorney general, Wyman left an indelible mark on the state - and the country. Former President Gerald Ford, who served in Congress with Wyman, remembered him as a good colleague and dear friend. "Louie Wyman was a longtime, very, very dear friend of mine. He was an excellent legislator...a man who was a very highly praised member of the House Committee on Judiciary because of his legal knowledge," Ford said. Retired Superior Court Judge Arthur E. Bean, Jr. first worked with Wyman in the 1950s, when Wyman was attorney general and Bean was one of his assistants. The two later became law partners when they opened a Manchester law office together. Bean remembers Wyman as a "very active attorney general" and "an excellent trial lawyer." Although he sat as a Superior Court judge, Wyman's legal mind, according to Bean, made him worthy of more - sitting on the state's highest court. "His position should have been on the Supreme Court. The great minds are on the Supreme Court. He should have been there," said Bean. - From Union Leader reports In memory of our colleague Louis C. Wyman, the New Hampshire Bar Association Board of Governors has contributed to the New Hampshire Bar Foundation, 112 Pleasant Street, Concord, NH 03301.
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