A Tradition Begun
By Michael P. Gunn
As I pondered this, my first article as president of The Missouri Bar, I knew I wanted to grab the reader. I wanted it to be more than "Lexobabble"1 about the bar, the profession, etc. That's not to say that I might not talk about that stuff sometime later, but now, for my first stab, I wanted to say something about where I came from.
My father, Judge Donald Gunn, was born October 3, 1908. His father, Joe Gunn, was a heating contractor who lost his shirt in the Depression. His grandfather, Peter Gunn (formerly Gilgunn) was an Irish immigrant dock worker who loaded the riverboats on the Mississippi. Not a lawyer in the bunch.
Although he didn't go past the third grade, Joe Gunn was an avid reader and appreciated the importance of an education. My father always attributed his disciplined mind to the Jesuits at St. Louis University High School in St. Louis, from which he graduated in 1926. My father's mother and father were willing to pay the expense of this because it meant a better life than they had. This education, along with the degrees my dad received from St. Louis University and St. Louis University Law School, were a wonderful foundation for what turned into an exemplary life.
But that wasn't the only reason for my father's career choice and success. We also had relatives named Eagleton. Mark Eagleton, father of our great United States Senator Tom Eagleton, was one of the finest trial lawyers the State of Missouri has ever known and was the benefactor who brought many of our family to this professional life. The training my dad received under his tutelage and that of his office manager, Leo Lyng, created the great lawyer and judge who was respected and loved until his sudden death in 1986.
Well, I guess that shows that you aren't always born to the law but, then, sometimes you can marry into it. My mother's brother was the great Mark Hennelly. A rascal, a bon vivant and a raconteur, he said he didn't remember which law school he graduated from. He is always mentioned when people in this area talk about great trial lawyers. Mark was one of six children, of which my mother was the oldest. Their father was born in Ireland and worked as a motorman for the old bi-state transit company until he dropped dead of a heart attack running to work. Their grandfather was a farmer at the old family farm near Hedford, County Galway, Ireland, by the river Ower.
Although he was from such meager estate, Mark Hennelly's greatness eventually brought him to be general counsel and later president of the Missouri Pacific Railroad at the time of his death.
As many know, these lawyer roots have led to my four brothers (Don, Jim, Tom and Pat) and me entering this noble profession. I also have numerous cousins, nephews and in-laws who are lawyers. You might say that we went from too few to too many.
But that's not the end of the story. As I begin this year of leadership of one of the finest organizations in the United States, The Missouri Bar, I want to dedicate it to Michael Gunn. Michael Kenny Gunn was born in 1922. He was one of four children of Mary and Wilson Gunn, my father's aunt and uncle. He graduated from William Cullen McBride High School in 1929, then attended St. Louis University and, like my father, entered St. Louis University School of Law. While there, World War II broke out and Michael suspended his legal education to enter the United States Army.
Michael's brother, Peter Wilson Gunn, also entered the service in that great war. On April 11, 1944, Peter Gunn, called Sonny, was killed in Anzio, Italy. On learning of his brother's death, Michael wrote home: "With the help of God, we'll all meet him again, and I know he'll be plugging for us."2 Unfortunately, only six weeks later, possibly a great addition to our new legal tradition ended when the plane in which Michael Gunn was bombardier crashed and he was killed. I was born shortly after these brothers' deaths and was christened Michael Peter Gunn.
The recent untimely death of John F. Kennedy, Jr. reminds us all of that eerie, forlorn feeling that you get when you muse on what might have been. All we know is that the past is a "ROM" (Read Only Memory) which we cannot change. We also know that we must live in the present.
So, that is why I think about my past, not only what was but also what may have been. And I think about the present and wonder if any of us really realize what a great gift it is to have the opportunity to fulfill our dreams using our memories and the contributions from those who came before us.
And finally, I think about the future. Our son is a third-year student at St. Louis University Law School, as is his fiancée. They are the future, we are the present and we owe a great deal to the past. The Law--What a Great Profession.
Endnotes
1 This is a word of my own invention meaning those bar association type words and discussions that make your eyes glaze over.
2 Gunn, Donald, IN THE HOLLOW, A Story of Families, 1982.