[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19480-19481]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO THOMAS SEAY LAWSON

 Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a 
dear friend and mentor, Judge Thomas Seay Lawson of Montgomery, AL. 
Judge Lawson died on Monday, September 2, at the age of 96.
  Judge Lawson was a native of Greensboro, AL, and was only 32 when he 
was elected attorney general of the State of Alabama in 1938 after 
serving for 7 years as an assistant attorney general. He was elected to 
the first of five consecutive terms to the Alabama Supreme Court in 
1942.
  Judge Lawson took a leave of absence from the Supreme Court to 
volunteer for military service during World War II and served as a U.S. 
Navy officer aboard the U.S.S. Massachusetts, which was involved in 
major battles in the Pacific theater including Okinawa and Iwo Jima.
  He also served for 38 years as a member of the University of Alabama 
board of trustees and was president pro tem of the board for 10 years. 
He was a member of the Alabama Academy of Honor. He was the grandson of 
Thomas Seay, who served as Governor of Alabama from 1886 to 1890.
  Judge Lawson earned his bachelor's degree from Davidson College and 
was a graduate of the University of Alabama Law School. The university 
conferred upon him a Doctor of Humane Letters degree and Davidson 
College awarded him its Alumni Citation for Accomplishments in the 
Field of Law.
  He was a member of the Alabama Academy of Honor, Omicron Delta Kappa, 
Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Phi Delta Phi, and a honorary member of Omicron 
Kappa Upsilon. He also served as a commissioner of the National 
Commission of Digestive Diseases of the National Institute of Health. 
He was the first president of the Alabama Law School Foundation.
  Judge Lawson is survived by his wife Kathleen, his son Thomas Seay

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Lawson, Jr., his daughter Jule, and many grandchildren and great-
grandchildren.
  Judge Lawson was a good friend, a patriarch of his community, a great 
leader of the State of Alabama, and a much-beloved family man. He will 
be greatly missed by many.

                          ____________________