[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 4, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5708-S5709]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SEBASTIAN J. ``BUSTER'' RUGGERI
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I welcome this opportunity to pay tribute
to a remarkable man, a brilliant trial attorney, and a dear friend,
Sebastian J. ``Buster'' Ruggeri.
Buster is a legend in Greenfield, MA. He was born in 1914, 4 years
after his parents arrived in Greenfield from Sicily, and grew up
delivering groceries for his family's business. He went on to graduate
from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1936, and Boston University
Law School in 1939.
In 1942, after practicing law for several years, Buster joined the
Air Force. He spent 3 years as a lawyer in the service, working his way
up from private to lieutenant colonel and retiring as head judge
advocate for a base of 40,000 service members in India.
After the war, Buster joined the Air Force Reserve squadron based in
Greenfield. He became commander of 85 men, retiring as lieutenant
colonel after 22 years.
After this outstanding service to the Nation, Buster focused his
attentions once again on the private practice of law. He quickly became
known as the dean of the county's legal community. He is one of the
brightest, most dedicated, and effective trial lawyers in western
Massachusetts. His passion and knowledge of the law and his commitment
to justice led to a remarkably successful legal career.
Buster's interests extend to many other areas. He is a leading member
of the Greenfield and Franklin County Democratic Committees. No Kennedy
has ever gone to Franklin County without Buster's advice, assistance,
and friendship. He used to hold strategy sessions for my brother during
his campaign for President in 1960, and he's been a valuable friend and
adviser to me throughout my years in the Senate.
In addition to these commitments, Buster always made time for
community service. He is a longtime member of the Lions Club and the
Elks Club, and served as deputy director for the Elks. Buster is also a
distinguished member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American
Legion. His professional achievements also include serving as president
of the Massachusetts Trial Lawyers Association and the Franklin County
Bar Association.
I congratulate Buster on his remarkable career, and I wish him well
as he continues his unique leadership for his profession, his
community, and his country. I ask unanimous consent that a recent
article on Buster's extraordinary life be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
A ``Colorful Pisan'' in the Courthouse
(By Russell G. Haddad)
Greenfield.--By all accounts over the past half century
observers could usually tell when attorney Sebastian J.
``Buster'' Ruggeri didn't have a strong case.
The demonstrative and gregarious Ruggeri never flinched
from a weak hand. He would create a diversion from the facts
of a case by waving his hands about and performing some
theatrics.
``If he didn't have a strong case he would about at the
jury,'' recalled former District Court Judge Allan McGuane
could hear him from two floors away,
John A. Barrett, Franklin County's register of probate,
recalls a time when Ruggeri had a 2 p.m. appointment in
probate court, but called to say he would be late. He showed
up 15 minutes late but has spent the previous hours appearing
in courts in Boston, Worcester and Springfield before
arriving in Franklin County,
It's just this kind of drive that over the years has earned
Ruggeri, still practicing full time at 82, a reputation as an
energetic trial lawyer who would take cases nobody else
wanted.
Ruggeri--considered the dean of the country's legal
community--still seems tireless. The self-described
``colorful pisan'' began practicing law in 1939, and seemed
to thrive on crisis and providing that he could win despite
the odds, his long-time associates say.
``In the courtroom you could feel his presence,'' Barrett
said. ``He commanded the attention of everybody.''
Ruggeri, meanwhile, looks back on his legal career and
takes pride in never doing anything halfway. He was a general
practitioner, researching while, handling divorces, doing
worker compensation cases, but also handled criminal cases,
as serious as murder, and civil actions
``I was always intense in my practice and tried to treat
everyone fairly,'' said Ruggeri.
He said his family nickname--first was used by his parents
when they called him for dinner--was always ``Busty'' but
became ``Buster'' when Sen. Edward Kennedy call him that
years ago.
In his heyday, Ruggeri was known as one of the most
imaginative and hardworking trial lawyers in western
Massachusetts,
``I could always express myself,'' he said smiling. ``I'm
at home being up front.''
His style worked in what Ruggeri describes as his most
memorable trial--a 1975 murder case in which he defended
Ernest W. Morran. Ruggeri in his closing statement hammered
away at the prosecution's case slamming his fist on the
jury box.
He ended his remarks reciting a Robert Frost poem to
reinforce his argument that police had ignored Morann's
version of what happened and arrested the wrong man in
Ashfield woods on a snowy night in November 1974.
``Two roads diverged in a yellow wood And sorry I could not
travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
Two where it bent in the undergrowth.''
As if he were there today, Ruggeri finished:
``Two roads diverged into a wood and I . . .''
``. . . took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.''
Ruggeri explained that he learned early on in his career
that he could sway juries by performing an impassioned plea.
He had to convince the jurors that he believed in his client.
``You have become a part of it,'' Ruggeri said. ``I just
about live it.''
Attorney John Callahan, who was a Northwest District
Attorney from 1970 to 1978 and
[[Page S5709]]
faced off against Ruggeri on many occasions, said he was
impressed with Ruggeri many, many times.
``He was bright. He was tenacious. He was very effective,''
Callahan said.
He recalled the Morran case, for which he was the
prosecuting attorney. He said it stands out as a prime
example of Ruggeri's skills and tenacity. Callahan said
Ruggeri did an ``unbelievable job'' in cross-examining a
pathologist testifying for the prosecutors.
The key to Ruggeri's success was preparation by hiring a
pathologist of his own to inspect the evidence and guide him,
according to Callahan.
``As far as I'm concerned it was one of the best jobs that
Sebastian ever did,'' he said. ``Sebastian could try a case
off the top of his head but seldom did when it was a serious
matter. As he always did, he gave his heart and soul to the
trial as he did with many others.''
Ruggeri was born in 1914, about four years after his
parents, Anthony and Rose, moved here from Sicily. His mother
and father, who worked for the Boston & Maine railroad in the
East Deerfield yards never had any formal education but went
on to build a successful grocery business, A. Ruggeri & Sons.
The oldest of four cones--he also has an older sister--
Ruggeri later helped in this business delivering groceries.
He has fond memories of those times when his mother would
give cookies to neighborhood children and the market was a
meeting place to talk about politics and the various
happenings in town.
``People used to come in and chew the fat for an hour,''
Ruggeri said with a sparkle in his eye.
But above all else, his greatest impression of those days
was his father, who opened the store in the 1920's in the
basement of their house Deerfield Street house. Ruggeri said
his father would work practically all day, yet, have time to
instill morals and values in his children.
``I think the world of my Daddy,'' Ruggeri said
affectionately. ``Me parents were next to God.''
However, he didn't always move in the direction his father
and mother wanted. On graduating from Greenfield High School,
Ruggeri attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1936,
earning a civil engineering degree. While his parents wanted
him to become an engineer, he has designs on a legal career
and eventually went to Boston University Law School and
graduated in 1939.
``I thought engineering would be too quiet,'' the fragile-
looking, but strong-willed Ruggeri recalled.
After three years of practicing law, Ruggeri joined the Air
Corp in 1942. He spent the subsequent three years in the
service, quickly working his way up from private to
lieutenant colonel, retiring as head judge advocate for a
base of 10,000 men in India.
After the war, he joined the 9286th Air Force Reserve
Squadron, based in Greenfield. He later became commander of
85 men, retiring as a lieutenant colonel after 22 years.
A conversation about Ruggeri's military experience tends to
get a bit dangerous. He becomes animated, excitedly pacing
back and forth and swinging his arms as he tells stories of
being in officer cadet school and his travels in India in the
shadow of the Himalayan Mountains on the Chinese border.
Reared on local political gossip at the family store,
Ruggeri eventually became a leader in the local and state
Democratic Party, befriending the Kennedys and on numerous
occasions hosting them at this 13-room James Street home.
In his Bank Row offices, photographs of John F. Kennedy and
Robert F. Kennedy hang on the walls. A commemorative poster
from the 25th anniversary of JFK's assassination is
prominently placed in the waiting area just outside Ruggeri's
office.
U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy personally signed the poster
with a message.
``To Buster--who started with Jack and has stood shoulder
to shoulder with all the Kennedy brothers--Ted,'' the
proclamation reads.
Kennedy, in a prepared statement, recently called Ruggeri
``great friend and key supporter'' for more than 40 years
going back to JFK's first campaign for the U.S. Senate in
1952.
``Ever since, no Kennedy has gone into Franklin County
without Buster's advice, assistance and friendship,'' Kennedy
said. ``He's made an enormous difference, and I know that
Jack and Bob felt the same way.''
Ruggeri, who was one of the guests invited to Rose
Kennedy's funeral last year, boasts that JFK's run for the
presidency began in his office as strategy sessions to take
control of the state Democratic Committee were held there. He
said he only asked for one job through his ties with Sen.
Kennedy--U.S. ambassador to Italy.
``I speak Italian fluently and everything,'' said Ruggeri,
who in recent years has been invited to join the Republican
Senatorial Inner Circle. ``I could have fun in Italy.''
Over the years, Ruggeri acquired much downtown property in
Greenfield, becoming the largest single landlord in town. His
37 properties include a sizable chunk of Bank Row, part of
which is the former First National Bank building. He also
owns an empty Federal Street office building as well as
several residential properties, the Silver Arrow liquor store
on French King Highway and the Ruggeri Shopping Center on
Federal Street. He also owns 52 acres on Shelburne Road,
which he hopes to sell for possible use as a shopping center.
Ruggeri, who started buying real estate soon after he began
practicing law, said at one time the properties were
considered a badge of honor. Now many of them are vacant and
falling into disrepair and he owes more than $130,000 in back
taxes.
At one time the commercial properties downtown, ``had a
certain amount of honor to them,'' he said. ``I've got some
temporary burden. I'm hoping 1996 will be better for me.''
The life of Franklin County's oldest lawyer has been full
of community service. He is a longtime member of the Lions
Club and Elks Club, having served as past district deputy for
the Elks. He also is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars
and American Legion organizations. His professional
affiliations included being a past president of the
Massachusetts Trial Lawyers Association and Franklin County
Bar Association. Politically, he is a member of the
Greenfield and Franklin County Democratic Committees.
Ruggeri and his wife, Margaret, were married 33 years
before she died in 1974. They had five children together--
Avis, Margaret, Phyllis, Christine and Paul, who died in a
1982 car crash.
Paul's death still appears to affect Ruggeri as he fondly
remembers what his son, and paw partner, meant to him and the
firm.
``He was bringing in young clients,'' Ruggeri said. ``My
whole plans to turn the office over to him were shot to hell.
He had a great future.''
Ruggeri's plans to retire and hand the firm to his son had
been dashed, and made him push his career forward.
McGuane, a former state representative, thinks of Ruggeri
as a ``remarkable man.'' He said Ruggeri belongs to the old
school of being polite and courteous.
``He's honest. A man of his word,'' McGuane said. ``He
always gave his client a full day's work for his pay whether
win, or lose or draw.''
Over his legal career, Ruggeri said he has had no regrets
despite having chances to become a federal judge on several
occasions through his association with the Kennedys.
``I always wanted to be a small town lawyer,'' Ruggeri
said, ``I had the freedom here.''
Hard work has become his trademark.
And Ruggeri is still going strong. He received a degree in
patent law last summer from Franklin Pierce Law Center in
Concord, N.H.
____________________