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Bar News - February 7, 2003 In Memoriam - Bois, Cameron MAURICE BOIS, 85, FORMER SUPREME COURT JUSTICE MAURICE P. BOIS, 85, a retired NH Supreme Court justice and former Superior Court judge and U.S. Attorney, was found dead Jan. 14, 2003, after he had wandered out of the assisted living complex where he lived in Bedford. Bois, who suffered from Alzheimer's, was wearing only light clothing when he left the building unnoticed by staffers shortly before nightfall. Authorities conducted an extensive search in sub-freezing temperatures but his body, partially covered by snow, was not found until the next morning. Bois, a lifelong resident of the Manchester area, was born Aug. 14, 1917, the son of attorney Thomas J. and Hattie (Wurtele) Bois. After graduating from St. Anselm College in 1939, he attended Fordham Law School for two years before entering the US Army, where he served as artillery training officer during World War II. After the war, he resumed his legal studies and earned a law degree from Boston University. He began practicing law with his father in Manchester after he was admitted to the NH Bar in 1946. In 1954, President Eisenhower named Bois US District Attorney. He returned to private practice in 1961 but in 1973, Gov. Meldrim Thomson appointed him to the NH Superior Court. Three years later, Thomson again tapped him, this time to serve on the NH Supreme Court, where he sat until his retirement in 1983. Bois's family includes two sons, Maurice P. Bois, Jr., of Livingston, Texas, and Richard T. Bois, MD, of Westchester, PA; and two daughters, Judith R. Cheron and Pamela Sleeper, both of Manchester. His wife, Yeteve Vezina Bois, died in 1998. Recollections Of Bois RETIRED NH SUPREME Court Associate Justice Maurice P. Bois served on the appellate court for seven years, but in a 1994 interview conducted by attorney Pierre O. Caron for the New Hampshire Bar Foundation's Oral History Project, Bois said it was his brief (three years) tenure on the trial court that he truly loved. In the interview, he recalled that he had made it a common practice to talk with prospective jurors. The following are excerpts from the interview: "We had heard rumbles from the juries that they'd report at 9:30 in the morning and at 5:00 they'd be told to go home...They wondered what was going on and no one told them anything. "So [former Superior Court Justice Chuck Douglas] and I decided to go in and talk to them. And we'd...tell them: 'Hey, even though...we haven't used you, your presence is being felt, because while you were sitting here, we settled a case that would have taken at least a week of trial time. So your being here is what... forced a settlement.' "And after deliberating...[jurors] would say 'Did we do a good job?' And we'd say, 'Jurors always do a good job.' And they'd say, 'Well, did we find the way you would have found?' And I used to tell them, 'Hey, I'm not going to tell you how I would have found because that's not important. I'm one man, you're 12 people - unless you've made errors of law, you've done a good job.'" Regarding his service on the Supreme Court, Bois said he was reluctant to overrule his lower-court counterparts, and attributed that tendency to the court as a whole, particularly under the leadership of then-Chief Justice Frank Kenison. "[Kenison] was of the theory that you did everything that you could to uphold the trial judge. ...An appeal is a tough thing and you've got to have a good, good case. And it's true to a certain extent because the judge hears the witnesses, he sees their reaction, he's instructed or he instructs himself as to the law." MARK T. CAMERON, 43 MARK T. CAMERON, 43, who worked for seven years for the NH Public Defender's Office and also practiced law in Vermont, died on Jan. 24, 2003, in Westmoreland, NH, after a long battle with cancer. He was born in Rutland, Vt., on Sept. 28, 1959, the son of Howard and Beatrice (Soulia) Cameron. Cameron obtained his law degree from Pepperdine University School of Law and was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar Association in 1988. Practicing both in Vermont and New Hampshire, he was devoted to public interest law and representing the indigent. He practiced in the early 1990s with the Keene law firm of Fisk & Wells and served briefly as a prosecutor in Vermont before joining the New Hampshire Public Defender's Office, where he worked from 1992 to 1999. He later practiced with the law firm of Ulbrich & Anderson in Chester, Vt. Richard Guerriero, a former colleague at the Public Defender's Office, said: "Mark was a dedicated Public Defender and trial attorney. He defended the rights of thousands of indigent accused citizens in misdemeanors and felonies. His trial skills were well respected and he was known as a tough but effective negotiator." Cameron enjoyed hunting and fishing, as well as skiing and golfing with friends from New Hampshire Public Defender, Guerriero recalled. Survivors include his wife, Sara Kagle, an attorney with Vermont Legal Aid; his children, Molly and Ethan; his mother, Beatrice Cameron; his brother, John, and his sister, Donna Louiselle. Cameron's funeral was held Jan. 27 at St. Peter's Church in Rutland, Vt. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the United Way of Keene, 23 Center Street, Keene, NH 03431. In memory of our colleagues Maurice P. Bois and Mark T. Cameron, the New Hampshire Bar Association's Board of Governors has contributed to the New Hampshire Bar Foundation, 112 Pleasant Street, Concord, NH 03301.
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