Griffin Bell : A life in photos

Obituaries

A photo gallery of the life and times of Griffin Bell, one of the nations top lawyers who marked a career as a federal judge, Carter's U.S. attorney general and a corporate lawyer extraordinaire.

Griffin Bell possessed an unusually innovative legal mind and a gift for extricating clients from complicated jams. His belief in the law as "a practical instrument" marked a career as a federal judge, U.S. attorney general and corporate lawyer extraordinaire.

Bell's speciality: 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. His interest in the law: a product of his father, an Americus city councilman and county Democratic Party chairman. Here, Bell returns to Americus for Griffin Bell Day on October 13, 1977.

In 1953, after serving in the U.S. Army during WWII and practicing law for six years in Savannah and Rome, Bell moved to Atlanta to join the law firm of King & Spalding as a partner.

In 1959, Bell agreed to served as the unpaid chief of staff to Georgia Gov. Ernest Vandiver, who had been elected on a pledge that public school integration would not happen. Bell advised Vandiver that the federal court decisions left him no choice but to desegregate. He then created a blue-ribbon commission to collect parent testimony on desegregation. While parents blew off steam, Vandiver had enough cover to begin desgregating UGA. Here, Georgia parents protest school integration.

Bell met John F. Kennedy through a professional connection and served as the state co-chairman for Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. Here, Bell (center) talks with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) (left) and Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.).

After he became president, John F. Kennedy rewarded Bell with a seat on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The court had jurisdiction over six states: Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

In a series of decisions, Bell joined the court's majority in prodding local officials to comply with desegregation orders. But he also sharply criticized busing as a means of achieving school desegregation, as well as other court remedies he deemed unworkable.

In March 1976, Bell returned to King & Spalding as a senior partner but resigned at the end of the year when Carter nominated him to be his attorney general. His nomination was approved in January 1977. Here, Bell tips his hat for photographers prior to entering the Supreme Court Building in 1977.

The icy relations between Bell and others in the Carter administration may indirectly have helped Bell achieve what has been described as his greatest accomplishment as attorney general: restoring confidence in the integrity of the Justice Department after the Watergate era. Here, Carter congratulates Bell on his 1977 appointment.

During his tenure, Bell prevailed on the controversial issues of affirmative action. The case surrounded a white student, Allan Bakke, who failed to get into a California medical school and challenged affirmative action rules. Bell advised that the administration should take no position on the California case and reject quotas, while endorsing more limited plans for giving preference to minorities. Here, Bell talks with reporters outside U.S. District Court.

In 1993, Bell was hired by the elder George Bush as his private attorney in the Iran-contra investigation. Bell also counseled the younger Bush's campaign when the 2000 election hinged on the Florida recount. Here, Bell waives when introduced at a 2000 Bush rally.

Here, Bell (right) listens to questioning with former Sen. Sam Nunn at the 1999 House Commerce Committee's hearing looking into improprieties in the Atlanta Olympic bid process. Bell and Nunn served as legal counsel to Billy Payne and Andrew Young.

Despite being diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in 1995, Bell lived an unusually long and active life. When he was 86, he was commissioned as an Army major general to head a military tribunal that tried suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay. He scored a hole-in-one at the Sea Island Golf Club at the age of 78, and repeated the feat when he was 86.

Here Bell poses with his portrait that was painted some 40 years ago and now hangs in the King & Spalding mock courtroom. In a 2006 interview, he said: "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."

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Griffin Bell possessed an unusually innovative legal mind and a gift for extricating clients from complicated jams. His belief in the law as "a practical instrument" marked a career as a federal judge, U.S. attorney general and corporate lawyer extraordinaire.

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