Griffin Bell, Carter’s attorney general, dies

Griffin Boyette Bell, who served as Jimmy Carter’s attorney general and whose South Georgia drawl and lawyerly mannerisms disguised an unusually innovative legal mind, died Monday morning. He was 90.

“He was thinking outside the box before there was a box,” said Bob Steed, senior partner at King and Spalding, which Bell molded over six decades into a politically connected law firm with a national client list.

Bell died at about 9:45 a.m. at Piedmont Hospital, according to family members. Bell had been suffering from kidney disease, pancreatic cancer and pneumonia.

A grave-side service will be held for Bell on Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the historic Oak Grove Cemetery in Americus. On Friday, a memorial service will be held in Atlanta at 11 a.m., at Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church, 2715 Peachtree Rd. N.E.

“Rosalynn and I are deeply saddened by the loss of our dear friend Griffin Bell,” former President Carter said in a statement released through the Carter Center.

“A trusted and enduring public figure, Griffin’s integrity, professionalism, and charm were greatly valued across party lines and presidential administrations. As a World War II veteran, federal appeals court judge, civil rights advocate, and U.S. Attorney General in my administration, Griffin made many lasting contributions to his native Georgia and country. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”

Bell’s belief in the law as “a practical instrument” marked a career as a federal judge, U.S. attorney general and corporate lawyer extraordinaire.

His specialty lay in conducting internal, page-turning investigations for big companies in trouble: E.F. Hutton, after its financial scandal; Exxon, after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska; Dow Corning, after silicone breast implants were linked to health risks. Pro bono, he obtained the release from Nicaragua of Eugene Hasenfus, a mercenary captured after his Contra supply plane was shot down.

“That’s the fun of being a lawyer, to take something that’s really complicated and decide what to do with it, how to resolve it,” Bell said in a 2006 interview.

Bell’s political involvement spanned a wide arc, from his stint as an unpaid adviser to Georgia Gov. Ernest Vandiver in 1959, to his role as friend and sometimes lawyer to both Presidents Bush. Working with Vandiver in 1960, he came up with the idea for the Sibley Commission, which is credited with defusing racial tensions and enabling Georgia to peacefully desegregate its public schools.

“Atlanta would not be Atlanta had it not been for Griffin Bell,” said Andrew Young, the former United Nations Ambassador and Atlanta mayor. “In spite of the complaints about public education, we still have one of the better systems in the world. Griffin Bell worked with the Atlanta School Board and the community to develop an Atlanta solution (to desegregation) that was not only constitutionally correct, but academically sound.

“He was a very good friend of mine,” Young added Monday. “Somebody that I could always turn to in any circumstance. He was wise counsel.”

Bell’s integration work continued during his almost 15 years on the federal bench. He supervised the creation of dozens of school desegregation plans, fashioned with local school officials who often had to be cajoled into doing their duty.

Bell’s son said his father’s key role in desegregation made him something of a misunderstood figure.

“My father was considered a conservative by people who lived in the north and a liberal by people who lived in the south,” Bell Jr. said. “But he was a populist. He was a great believer in giving everyone a fair shake.”

Later, as Jimmy Carter’s attorney general in the post-Watergate days, he helped rehabilitate the reputation of the Justice Department and push through a law increasing judicial oversight of government wiretapping.

Bell was credited with the fair and speedy handling of a case in which the Justice Department was charged with investigating the president. He appointed a special counsel, Paul Curran, who investigated and cleared Carter of charges that loans were laundered into his campaign through his family’s peanut warehouse in Plains.

Young said Bell’s legal career made an important contribution to civil rights.

“I’m convinced that the true unsung heroes, of the southern civil rights movment were the federal judges … Griffin Bell, I think, was responsible for not only desegrating schools, but he helped President Carter desegrate the judiciary. There were no black federal judges in the south until President Carter.”

Bell received numerous awards and honorary degrees, and served on many government commissions, leading the U.S. delegation at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1981, and the Webster Commission, which investigated FBI security problems in the Robert Hanssen spy case.

Former U.S. senator and Georgia governor Zell Miller called Bell, “a good and very wise man, always ahead of everyone else by a decade or more. He was one of the most important Georgians of the 20th century. And he had a great sense of humor.” Among Bell’s accomplisments, Miller cited “the role that he played in the changing of the Georgia of the 60s, not only what he said as a sitting judge but also the advice and counsel he gave others at a time when voices like his were rare.”

During World War II, he met and married Mary Powell, who would be his wife until her death in 2000. In 2001, Bell married Nancy Kinnebrew, the widow of a family friend, Hulme Kinnebrew. She survives him as does son Griffin Bell Jr. of Atlanta, a daughter -in-law, Glenda Bell (wife of Griffin Jr.) of Atlanta; grandson Griffin Bell III and his wife Jessica Bell, both of Decatur; granddaughter Katherine Bell McClure and her husband Christian McClure, both of Atlanta; five great grandchildren.

— Ben Smith and Rosalind Bentley contributed to this report.