THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 12, 1996 TAG: 9606120417
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 70 lines
About 700 mourners, esteemed jurists and pig farmers alike, slogged through a storm-sopped cemetery at noon Tuesday to bury Richard Boykin Kellam, the area's eldest active judge and prominent member of one of the city's most influential families.
Kellam, 87, died Saturday in the same stately 265-year-old farmhouse on Princess Anne Road where he was born May 30, 1909.
He had earned the steadfast respect and friendship of Hampton Roads' legal, civic and Christian communities, said those who spoke at the funeral service.
Kellam had presided over area courts nearly half his life and was a judge in Norfolk's U.S. District Court for the past 29 years.
He was a member of the Nimmo United Methodist Church congregation for 78 of his 87 years and helped with the renovation of the historic structure.
For his devotion to the church, Kellam was called the congregation's ``elder statesman.''
He was buried at the church in a family plot just moments after spring winds scattered the gray storm clouds that had cascaded torrents onto the hundreds of cars that filled the church's grassy parking lots.
More than 400 mourners packed into the church, with at least another 250 filling an adjoining hall, where they watched the service on closed-circuit television.
``I always called him `Judge Kellam,' '' Kellam's colleague and life-long friend, retired bankruptcy judge Hal Bonney, said in a eulogy. ``Never Dick. Never Richard. Always Judge Kellam. That was because of the immense respect I had for him. I had put him on a pedestal, the pedestal of my heart.''
Bonney said Kellam's long life touched many, from the highest of dignitaries to the most common of citizens. The somber gathering included prominent attorneys, municipal and law-enforcement officials, bench colleagues and neighbors.
Kellam, one of 16 children, never graduated from college or law school. Instead, he taught himself law and was admitted to the bar in 1933. He joined his brother Floyd's law practice.
Throughout the years, he and his siblings made the Kellam name synonymous with prominence and success. The late Sidney Kellam, who was once the city's most powerful Democratic leader, is credited with creating modern-day Virginia Beach from Princess Anne County. Floyd Kellam was a Circuit Court judge, and another brother, William, a state senator.
Richard Kellam was appointed to a Circuit Court judgeship in 1960. President Lyndon Johnson appointed him to the federal bench in 1967. He had taken the title ``senior'' in 1981, meaning he could reduce his schedule. But Kellam never reduced his workload.
``He was a family man without peer,'' Bonney said in his eulogy's closing. ``He was a jurist without peer. He was a friend without peer. We shall never see his likes again.''
Kellam is survived by his wife, Alice; two sons, Richard Kellam Jr. of France and Philip Kellam of Virginia Beach; a daughter, Martha Stone of Virginia Beach, and two grandchildren. ILLUSTRATION: Richard Boykin Kellam, 87, died Saturday in the
265-year-old house where he was born on
May 30, 1909. He had been a judge for nearly half his life and was a
member of one of Virginia Beach's most influential families.
Judge Kellam is survived by his wife, Alice, and sons Richard
Kellam Jr., left, and Philip, right. Also surviving are a daughter,
Martha Stone of Virginia Beach, and two grandchildren.
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT photos
The Virginian-Pilot
U.S. District Judge Richard B. Kellam Sr. is carried to his final
resting place in the Nimmo United Methodist Church's cemetery. by CNB