In Memoriam: F. William McCalpin
F. William McCalpin, one of the leading advocates of legal aid to the poor, died December 9, 2009 at his home in St. Louis.
By the time a national legal services program was established in 1965, Mr. McCalpin had already spent his career up until then taking on poor clients in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. He would continue to take a leading role in legal services by serving on several of the nation’s most important organizations: ABA’s Committee on Availability of Legal Services (Chairman, 1965-1970); ABA’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants (Chairman, 1973-1976); National Legal Aid and Defender Association (President, 1989-1992); and Legal Services Corporation (Chairman, 1979-1981 and Board Member, 1993-2003). He kept ties with his beloved hometown , serving as Director of the Legal Aid Society of St. Louis (1965-1970) and President of the Missouri Legal Aid Society (1977, 1978).
In his oral history given to the NEJL in 2002, Mr. McCalpin reaffirmed his commitment to legal services: "the most rewarding part of my 54 years at the bar has been to be able to, hopefully, try to make some difference in the lives of people and particularly in people who otherwise might not have had, not necessarily access to my services, but to the ... services (of) other lawyers that I have helped to make available." (NEJL-009, F. William McCalpin)
For a more detailed biography, please see NLADA’s tribute and his obituary at the New York Times.
Other links:
The National Equal Justice Library (NEJL) is the first and only national institution dedicated to documenting and preserving the legal profession's history of providing counsel for those unable to afford it. Created nearly two decades ago, the NEJL includes such treasures of public interest law as the records of the Legal Aid Society of New York, the country's first legal aid organization established in 1876, and oral history interviews with members of the defense team in the landmark Gideon v. Wainwright case, which upheld the constitutional right to counsel in criminal cases.
The collection also contains over two thousand books and publications, including several hundred volumes about legal aid in other countries, among them a 16th century text which references a 1495 English statute that guaranteed a right to counsel for indigents involved in civil cases.
Access our manuscript collections by using our search engine. Access our book collection by using the GULLIVER online catalog.
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