Robert H. Laws, Jr. died on September 27, 2018 with his wife and sons at his bedside. A long-time member of HANC, he served as president in 1967.
Robert was born on January 11, 1930 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. His family moved frequently during the Great Depression and war years, but the family eventually settled in Sausalito. After attending Tamalpais High School and the University of San Francisco, Robert earned a law degree from U.C. Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. Robert practiced law in San Francisco and Oakland for many years and was eventually appointed as an administrative law judge.
Robert worked to protect the powerless, defending civil and voting rights, developing homeless services and organizing the Presbyterian Church to oppose torture. Dr. David Smith said that he helped the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic in its early days.
He was married to his beloved wife, Beatrice, since 1962 and had two sons, James Challiss and John Muir Laws. He was an avid fisherman who tied his own flies and spent a great deal of time hiking and camping with his family.
At the memorial service on October 13, many stories were told about his even-tempered approach to difficult situations. His son, James, related that one time when he and his younger brother were at a movie theater with their dad, a man sitting behind him kept kicking his seat. Robert turned and asked him to stop kicking. The man belligerently asked what he was going to do about it. Their Dad barely paused, then told the man that he’d go sit behind him and kick his seat. The kicking stopped.
