Joe Merrick, first-rate litigator

Joe Merrick played hard — first as a star athlete at Seattle Prep, then as one of the region's top trial lawyers.

But he always played fair, his friends and family say.

"He was a great competitor," said U.S. District Judge Walter McGovern, whose lifelong friendship with Mr. Merrick began when both were students at Prep in the 1930s, "but everything was upfront with him. Even in school, he was a great leader. We all admired him."

Mr. Merrick, a Seattle native, died Saturday (Aug. 24) at his Seattle home. He was 83. "He lived and died mostly within a 10-mile radius," said his daughter, Molly Merrick.

Mr. Merrick began practicing law in Seattle in 1950, and he continued to visit the First Hill offices of Merrick, Hofstedt and Lindsey to talk politics and law until shortly before his death. When he turned 80, his partners named the firm's building after him.

He was a regular at Vito's, the legendary watering hole three blocks from his office that for years was a favorite hangout of lawyers, judges and politicians. "Losing Joe is really losing some of the history of the city, because he knew everybody," said Sid Snyder Jr., an attorney with the firm.

Hubert Joseph Merrick's parents were Irish immigrants. His father worked as a coal miner and longshoreman.

Mr. Merrick was a three-sport star at Seattle Prep, where he was inducted into the athletic hall of fame in 1998. He attended Seattle College, now Seattle University, then pitched in the Chicago White Sox minor-league system, rising to the AAA level. Fans knew him as "Lefty."

He remained physically active most of his life, playing handball several times a week for decades. He was a member and former president of the Broadmoor Golf Club.

He also fished (McGovern was with Mr. Merrick when he caught a 50-pound salmon off Westport), and until this year he still occasionally attended Mariners games.

But World War II ended Mr. Merrick's professional baseball career. He enlisted in the Navy, serving on ships in the Pacific.

After the war he enrolled in law school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., moonlighting as an elevator operator in the U.S. Senate. He graduated in 1948, then worked for the U.S. Labor Department before returning to Seattle to hang out his shingle.

Mr. Merrick specialized in civil litigation, mostly representing defendants in personal-injury and insurance matters. "He had this magical ability to communicate with juries," Snyder recalled.

That skill was recognized when Mr. Merrick was named a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. Later in his career, he worked as a labor arbitrator and mediator.

"He was one of the best, a first-rate litigator," said Rolly Hofstedt, a law partner for 40 years.

Hofstedt also remembers Mr. Merrick as someone who valued friendship highly, keeping in touch with people from all corners of his past — from Seattle Prep, the Navy and Washington, D.C.

"He was a wonderful talker," Hofstedt said. "He had a million stories."

Mr. Merrick married his first wife, Edna Mae Farrell, in 1950. She died in 1973. In 1976 he married his kindergarten sweetheart, Ruth Ann Clifford, who died in 1999.

Mr. Merrick's survivors include children Tom Merrick, Molly Merrick, Nicki Reynolds and Margie Hennessey, all of Seattle, Joe Merrick of Bellevue and Suzanne Piper of Keyport, Kitsap County; sisters Mary Williams of Seattle and Margaret Shoul of Orange Grove, Calif.; and 11 grandchildren.

A rosary will be said tonight at 7 p.m. at Bonney-Watson Funeral Home, 1732 Broadway, Seattle. Funeral services will be at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, 732 18th Ave. E., Seattle.

Because Mr. Merrick seemed to know everyone, Hofstedt has predicted a big turnout: "There's probably going to be more people at that funeral than there are at the Mariners game."

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com.