Two decades ago, I spent a fair amount of time handling cases across Arkansas in the United States bankruptcy court. I represented creditors -- banks, landlords, auto dealers -- seeking payment from borrowers attempting to discharge debts. I also represented the bankruptcy trustee to reclaim payments considered by law to be preferential transfers. It was every bit as scintillating as it sounds, and I've yet to understand why Hollywood doesn't make shows starring pasty-faced young attorneys and accountants with their noses in the bankruptcy code. Let's see James Spader and William Shatner do something with THAT!
Over the years, I focused less on handling creditor matters, and more on estate planning and real estate. So much time has passed and laws have changed that it would border on malpractice for me to step foot in the federal court today. Most of the personnel I once knew have changed, too, moving on to other chapters of their lives as have I. One did so just last week.
On April 25, the Honorable Ben Thomas Barry retired as the chief judge for the United States bankruptcy court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas, having served exactly 14 years to the day on the bench. I practiced not a day before him, and never really knew him as a judge. I knew him as a trustee, but even then, our paths rarely crossed. He wore many other hats as well, as law professor, city prosecutor, city attorney, mediator and arbitrator. Still, others are better suited to describe those accomplishments than I.
As for me, the attributes I find most riveting about my friend do not make headlines or grace biographical introductions. How refreshing it would be to introduce the Honorable Ben Barry by the traits I find most honorable -- like the way he looks at his wife, Susan, as they pull weeds and discuss plants in their garden. The way his face lights up when he talks of his daughters, and dwells on the happy moments they have shared as a family. The way he lives his faith in Colossians 3:12-17.
I'd like to hear him introduced by the way he hosts a party, keeping the focus of his attention on those the world might view as the "least of these" rather than on those his profession considers "VIPs." By his love of a good joke, nostalgia, the Razorbacks and the first homegrown tomato of summer. By the way he enthusiastically shares his pancake recipe (lemon poppy seed, anyone?) .
He's one of a handful of people I know who loves a good western as much as I do and believes Larry McMurtry and Charles Portis to be kings among men. And like the lead cowboy in a white Stetson, Judge Barry served honorably, and lives even more so. How blessed we'd be if the same could be said of us all.
I wish you all good things, my friend, and raise a glass that your next chapter be McMurtry-worthy.