Article: Geauga Co. Bar

The Ipso Jure – magazine of the Geauga County Bar Association Published June 2011

President’s Page by Lisa J. Carey, Esq.

Lawyers and judges have somewhat of a love-hate relationship. By that, I mean we, as lawyers, have to argue and present our cases and the judges have to make a decision, which we sometimes like and sometimes not.

As I have been thinking about Judge Henry over the past couple of weeks and everything that happened, I was trying to come up with a word to describe his relationship with us in the legal community.  I imagine if I polled various lawyers, I’d get a number of choice word, but the word I have chosen is Dedication.

Judge Henry was extremely dedicated to the legal profession and to this Bar Association. Those of you in attendance at the Christmas Party this past December know that he swore me and my follow officers into office – a ceremony that we have affectionately come to call being “sworn at”.  More recently, at the March monthly Bar meeting, I asked Judge Henry to come and speak about some new juvenile rules.  I asked him at the last minute as our planned program had cancelled late. But he graciously agreed to come and, as usual, came prepared and gave an informative presentation.  I even think he finished in time to get back to Court by 1:00 pm., as Judge Burt noted that he always did because he had “things to do”.  Pretty much anyone who filed a case in his Court knew you had to be ready to go when you filed –  because your hearing was going to be scheduled in about 21 days no matter what.

That’s Dedication.

I know there are probably countless stories of the Judge on the bench and how he cared for and went the extra step for juveniles in Geauga County. I am aware of one case in particular. As we all know Juvenile Judges are put in the unenviable position of sometimes having to remove children from their homes due to the neglect or abuse by their parents.  Judges listen not only to the lawyers, but also to a Guardian ad Litem, social service workers, and multitudes of witnesses, parties, family members, etc.  In this one particular case, Judge Henry personally made a home visit to this family’s house to make sure that these kids had a safe and appropriate place to live.

That’s Dedication.

Some of you may remember that, a couple of weeks ago, Judge Henry came down with something – the flu or a bad cold or something.  He didn’t call Magistrate Lubecky and ask him to take over his docket for the day.  He didn’t tell his clerks to call everyone and cancel his hearings.  No – he came to Court with a bottle of Purel and a surgical mask.

That’s Dedication.

If you attended Judge Henry’s funeral, you were treated to countless stories by family and friends – mostly about a side of the Judge that the majority of us did not know. Whoever would have thought that you could use the words “streaker” and “judge Henry” in the same sentence and actually be referring to him??  But it was something more toward the en of the service that the Judge’s son, Charles Adam, said – he doesn’t want his Dad to be forgotten.

I would like to think that we all learned something from Judge Henry from practicing in his courtroom.  I would also like to think that we are all better lawyers to some extent, not only working with Judge Henry, but with all of the fine judges we have on the bench here in Geauga County.  We are very lucky.

The family has asked that if anyone has any stories about Judge Henry, to please forward them to Linda, his wife, or to Dodie, or any other family member you may know.  I encourage you to do that over the coming weeks and months as you may remember something that you think they would like to hear.  In the near future, we, as a Bar Association, will be honoring Judge Henry with the placement of his picture in the Courthouse and the presentation of a Proclamation.  We will be inviting the Henry family and the court staff, as well as the Bar, to a reception in his honor. Please watch your e-mail for further details.

As the Judge always used to say at the end of his hearings (at all the ones I ever went to anyway), “You folks have a good day”.

April 7, 2018 Linda