In Memorium: Milt Harper (1944- 2016)

On July 19, 2016, Milt Harper passed away at the age of 72. The full obituary can be found here. Excerpts from his obituary follow:

Milt grew up in Hannibal, and graduated from the University of Missouri Law School in 1970. He was a former prosecuting attorney and Associate Circuit Judge in Boone County, and was the founder of the law firm Harper, Evans, Wade & Netemeyer.

Milt was respected as a vigorous trial lawyer who was attentive to his clients. Milt was a member of numerous professional associations including the Boone County Bar Association, The Missouri Bar, Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys, Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, University of Missouri Jefferson Club, Missouri Association of Prosecutors and the Columbia Chamber of Commerce. Milt served proudly in the U.S. Army and later in the Army Reserve.

In 1978, Milt married Deanna Ward, who survives him, along with two children, Joseph Harper and Sara Harper, and one grandson, Benjamin Milton Harper. A Celebration of Life for Milt Harper will be held at The Orchard, 2200 Palmyra Rd., Hannibal, MO 63401,  on Sunday, September 18, from 2 to 5 p.m.

President Recaps the Year

By Josh Oxenhandler, 2015-16 President

It has been an absolute pleasure to serve as your President this year. As my reign of terror winds down, I want to take a moment to look back at what we have accomplished.

I am proud of all of the hard work that the Executive Committee, the At-Large Committees, our web team and all of those who participate in our lunches and social events do to make our bar a vibrant, informative and fun organization. I will be excited to see the nominations for next year’s slate of officers.

It is the rest of the Executive Committee and supporting cast – Marjorie Lewis, Jason Simmons, Jennifer Riedy, Thad Taylor and Steve Scott – that do all the hard work that has made my job so easy these past several months. Because of the behind-the-scenes hard work put in by these rising stars, we have informative CLE lunches, a cool new website, an awesome Newsletter, and a great holiday mixer. And I am looking forward to a fun picnic this fall.

Thank you very much for a coup-less year. Here’s to you!

BCBA’s new digital home

Greetings from the President!

Esteemed colleagues:

Welcome to the new digital home of our Boone County Bar Association! A lot of hard work went into this comprehensive redesign of our web home. Major props to Steve Scott for his hard work building the site from the ground up. Building a website with as many features as we now have at our disposal is complicated, time-consuming and takes a special attention to detail.

We are lucky to have dedicated members Steve Scott and Thad Taylor to make sure using our new site is easy and intuitive. The mission was to make the site easy to use and highly interactive – Steve knocked it out of the park!

Take a moment to click around, check out the features, find the bugs we need to fix, and give us feedback for the future.

If you have any thoughts or ideas, email me, Steve Scott or Thad Taylor.

Enjoy!

Best, Josh Oxenhandler
2015-16 President

In Memoriam: Bob Smith (1923-2016)

On March 8, 2016, Robert C. (Bob) Smith passed away at the age of 92. Upon his death, the Robert C. Smith Trust left a $750.00 donation to the BCBA earmarked for a Membership Celebration.

Excerpts from his obituary follow. The full obituary can be found at here.

A lifelong resident of Columbia, Bob served as the city’s mayor from 1961 to 1963. Over the years, as the city grew and changed, he took great pleasure in remaining actively involved in the political, cultural, business, and educational life of the community.

Born in 1923, Bob earned his bachelor of arts and juris doctorate from the University of Missouri. His early career as a lawyer was bracketed by military service. He served as an artillery observation pilot during World War II, and again during the Korean War, when he received the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters for his combat service.

In 1945, Bob married Jean Isabel Durant of Columbia. After the Korean War, he returned home to raise a family, build his law practice and pursue political aspirations. In 1953, he was elected Representative from Boone County in the state legislature, serving as speaker pro tem in his second term. Bob attempted a run for United States Congress in 1958. After a narrow defeat, he shifted his focus to local politics and community service. In 1959, he co-founded the law firm of Smith & Lewis.

During the years that followed, Bob continued to make myriad contributions on local, county and state levels. He served as chairman of the Boone County Democratic Committee, member of the Missouri State Bar Association Disciplinary Committee, member of the Board of Curators for Stephens College, president of the State Historical Society, director of Callaway Bank, president of the Missouri Symphony Society, chairman of the Missouri State Gaming Commission and honorary lifetime deacon of the First Baptist Church.

Bob helped create the Stafford Family Charitable Trust to support charitable work in Boone County, and he sat on its selection committee from the trust’s inception until his death. Over the years, he received numerous awards for public service, including the Howard B. Lang Jr. Award for lifetime service to the Columbia community.