James R. Williams, who served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio (1978-1982) passed away on Friday, November 6, 2020. He was 88. He also served as an Akron Municipal Court judge, a member of the Akron City Council, and Summit County’s first Black Common Please Court judge. He was a civil rights leader and an officer with the Akron and Ohio branches of the NAACP. Ebony magazine named Williams one of the 100 most influential Black Americans.

Williams was preceded in death by his first wife, Catherine. He is survived by his wife, Jewell Cardwell-Williams and two children, Michael and Jacqueline, and four grandchildren.

As is our custom, NAFUSA will arrange for an American flag to be flown over Main Justice in James’ honor as a token of the esteem with which he was held by his colleagues.

Read full obituary from the Akron Beacon Journal

George Landon Phillips, former United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi (1980-1994) died on January 26, 2015. He was honored by NAFUSA with an American flag flown over Main Justice and presented to his family at his memorial service. George also served as the Mississippi Commissioner of Public Safety, the top State law enforcement position. He will be honored once again on January 10, 2020, as the Mississippi Department of Public Safety dedicates the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol Troop K- District Office in his honor in Biloxi. George Phillips Building Dedication Ceremony 1.10.20

William D. Ruckelshaus, who was the keynote speaker at the NAFUSA conference in Seattle in 2009, died on November 27, 2019, at his home in Medina, Washington. He was 87.

In 1973, Ruckelshaus was named acting FBI director and then deputy attorney general during the time of the Watergate investigation. Attorney General Elliott Richardson appointed Archibald Cox, a Harvard law professor, to investigate the break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex. When Cox requested access to the Oval Office tape recordings of the time immediately after the break-in, President Nixon refused access and ordered the Attorney General to fire Cox. Richardson refused and resigned. Ruckelshaus was then ordered by the White House to fire Cox, and he, too, refused and resigned.

At NAFUSA’s Seattle conference, Ruckelshaus spoke of the “Saturday Night Massacre” publicly for the first time. Click here to read Ruckelshaus keynote speech Remembering Watergate. It is one of the most memorable keynote speeches in NAFUSA history.

Ruckelshaus later served as the administrator of EPA, under appointment by President Ronald Reagan. He attended Princeton University and received his law degree from Harvard.

Long time NAFUSA member Robert M. Morgenthau passed away at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, after a short illness. He was 99. A dues paying member of NAFUSA until his death, Morgenthau was appointed by President John F. Kennedy to serve as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 1961. He served in that position until 1970. He was the only active member of NAFUSA from the Kennedy Administration. He served as the Manhattan District Attorney from 1975 until 2009. He was honored by NAFUSA at its 2010 New York Annual Conference upon his retirement from public service.

He is survived by his second wife Lucinda Franks, whom he married in the 1970s. He was the co-subject of her book, Timeless Love, Morgenthau, and Me, published in 2014.

As is our custom, NAFUSA has requested that an American flag be flown over Main Justice in Mr. Morgenthau’s honor and it will be presented to his family as a token of the regard with which he was held by his colleagues.

Click here to read The New York Times obituary.

Thomas Johnson Ashcraft, 66, of Charlotte, North Carolina, died September 25, 2018 at his home after a long battle with cancer. Tom served as the US Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina from 1987 until 1993. In addition to practicing law, Tom’s career included serving as a legislative aid to the late Senator Jessie Helms in the 1980’s. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the London School of Economics and from the Wake Forest University School of Law.

Tom is survived by his sister, Nicky Wallace of Greenville, SC and nieces and nephews, Monte Stone and her husband, Kirk, Sara Spicer Heath and her husband, Tom, Ben Wallace and his wife, Ginger, Shepard Wallace and his wife, Amanda, Courtney Evans and Emily Evans.

A mass was held on September 29, 2018 at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte.
Memorials may be sent to Belmont Abby College, 100 Belmont-Mt. Holly Road, Belmont, NC 28012. As is our custom, NAFUSA will request that an Amerian flag be flown over Main Justice in Tom’s honor and presented by NAFUSA to his family.

Flag flown over Main Justice on July 17 in honor of Stan Bardwell

Former U.S. Attorney Stanford O. Bardwell Jr. died at his Baton rouge home on June 9, 2018. He was 78 years of age. Bardwell served as the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana from 1981 to 1986. He also served as the deputy general counsel for the U.S. Energy Department 1986-1988. He is survived by his wife, Leslie Bardwell and his three children, Brian, Patrick and Erin.

As is our custom, at NAFUSA’s request, an American flag was flown over Main Justice on July 17, 2018, and will be presented on by NAFUSA member Ray Lamonica to Stan’s wife Leslie.

Read the obituary in The Advocate

William J. “Bill” Mulligan, one of the co-founders of NAFUSA, and its first president (1980-81), died on May 1, 2018. Bill graduated from Marquette Law School (60′). He was an Assistant United States Attorney, 1960-1965; United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, 1974-1978; Assistant Professor, Trial Practice and Civil Procedure, Marquette Law School, 1978-1980; State Bar of Wisconsin, Chairman of Board of Governors, 1983-1984

In 2014 Bill received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Marquette Law School. He was a shareholder at Davis & Kuelthau, where he was a litigation attorney, and co-chair of the Environmental Team (Of Counsel). Bill’s additional work in the legal community included: Eastern District of Wisconsin Bar Association, Co-Founder and President, 2003-2004; Wisconsin Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company, Chairman of the Board, 1988-2014; Treasurer, 1986-1988, Member of Board of Directors, 1985-Present.

He is survived by his children Kathleen (Brent Kidwell) Mulligan, Thomas (Cassandra Schug) Mulligan, Sara (Craig) Mauermann and Margaret Mulligan, and nine grandchildren.