GRIFFIN BELL: 500 gather in tribute

Former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell was in critical positions at critical times as the nation struggled with desegregation and tried to heal after Watergate.

Bell also helped build one of the nation’s largest law firms —- King & Spalding —- and was remembered Friday for helping his beloved Mercer University grow in size and prominence.

“He walked with kings … but he never lost the common touch,” the Rev. David Sapp said in his eulogy of Bell.

Friends, family and a who’s who of the political and legal communities of the South came to Second-Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta to remember Bell. They frequently smiled at stories of his inner strength and laughed at tales of his homilies, parables and lessons.

“When the two most turbulent events swept this country … we turned to Judge Bell,” said Bill Underwood, president of Mercer, where Bell studied law. Those events, Underwood said, were “integration and Watergate.”

Bell died Monday at age 90. He had kidney disease, pneumonia and pancreatic cancer. A graveside service was held Wednesday in Sumter County, his home. A second service took place Friday morning at Second- Ponce de Leon. About 500 people came to the Buckhead church to honor him.

Former President Jimmy Carter sat just feet from the portrait of his old friend who was part of his administration. The current attorney general, Michael Mukasey, sat nearby in the same pew. Two rows behind them were Gov. Sonny Perdue and former Gov. Carl Sanders.

As promised, the three men Bell had asked to speak at his memorial —- Sapp, Underwood and law partner Frank Jones —- “kept it short” but took time to describe a driven young man from South Georgia who became, in Jones’ words, “one of the best-known lawyers in the nation.”

Underwood said Bell “viewed the law as a sacred calling.”

Sapp said Bell “saw the law as a tool for resolving human conflict, not for increasing it.”

“He gave his life to the higher good. As a federal judge, he brought us into a new world of race relations,” Sapp said. “And as attorney general, he restored confidence” in the office of the president following Watergate.

Bell was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last June, and he knew he would not survive, Sapp said. Recalling a recent conversation, the minister said the former attorney general told him, “Everything in my life turned out right.”

Underwood said that at the December meeting of the Mercer Board of Trustees, Bell delivered a “moving farewell to his friends and colleagues on the board.”

“He told us he’d lived a good life, and he was satisfied the Lord gave him a square deal,” Underwood said. “Then he stood and waved good-bye.”