THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996 TAG: 9606090038
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 122 lines
Every morning at 7, long before the other employees, a short, bespeckled, balding man would enter Norfolk's federal courthouse and begin his workday. If it was summer, he wore a white linen suit.
The man was Richard Boykin Kellam, probably the hardest-working judge in Hampton Roads, certainly the oldest still hearing cases. Even in semi-retirement, the 87-year-old Kellam kept the hours and workload of a man half his age.
On Saturday, Kellam died in the same 265-year-old farmhouse in which he was born. He worked up to the day last month that he discovered his illness.
Kellam's death leaves a hole in Norfolk's U.S. District Court, where he presided for the past 29 years. Before that, Kellam was a judge in Virginia Beach Circuit Court for seven years.
His death also severs a link to Virginia Beach's rural past, and to the city's most prominent family.
His brother Sidney was the city's most powerful Democratic political leader and the man who created modern-day Virginia Beach from Princess Anne County. His father, Abel, was Circuit Court clerk for 20 years. His brother Floyd was a Circuit Court judge, and another brother, William, was a state senator.
Richard Kellam was born May 30, 1909, in a white-shingled home that thousands of motorists pass every day on their way to the Virginia Beach Municipal Center. It is across the street from the old Princess Anne County Courthouse.
Kellam never graduated from college or law school. Instead, he read law books with his brother Floyd, was admitted to the bar in 1933 and joined his brother's law practice.
The General Assembly appointed Kellam to a Circuit Court judgeship in 1960. President Lyndon Johnson appointed him to the federal bench in 1967, over the concerns of Virginia Beach Republicans, who complained that the appointment ``would extend the Kellam machine into the federal judiciary.''
The nomination passed after a busload of 33 Norfolk and Virginia Beach lawyers traveled to Washington to support Kellam.
Coincidentally, Kellam became a federal judge the same day as John A. MacKenzie of Portsmouth and Robert R. Merhige Jr. of Richmond, who still sit on the court. Kellam was 56 at the time.
Since then, Kellam had been steady as a metronome. His schedule seldom varied.
``All through those 30 years he has kept unusual hours,'' recalled court clerk Ray Old. ``He was one of the first ones here every day.''
No, recalled retired Bankruptcy Judge Hal Bonney: ``He was the first one in the courthouse. Frequently I was the second, but I never beat him. He came in at 7, I got there at 7:30. He was a most diligent worker.''
Bonney was Kellam's law clerk in 1969-70 and eventually became a good friend.
``He really became the mentor of my career, like a father or a brother to me,'' Bonney said. ``He and I became fast friends, and joked and teased one another. He was always a role model to me.
``He and I got together every day and talked for a few minutes about things. Sometimes it would be the day's news and such. . . . We were extremely close. He was the greatest friend I ever had.''
In 1981, at age 72, Kellam took ``senior status'' as a judge, meaning he could reduce his schedule and hear as few cases as he liked, while keeping his title.
But Kellam never did reduce his workload.
``He could have retired and got the same amount of money and not work, but he frankly enjoyed working,'' said his son Philip Kellam. ``He had an agile and active mind.''
Over the years, Kellam presided over many well-known cases.
He heard the criminal prosecutions of former Chesapeake Mayor David Wynne and Bishop L.E. Willis. He divided the fabulous gold fortune that was recovered from the sunken ship Central America.
In that case, Kellam noted that two trials had produced more than 40 boxes of documents and 11,400 pages of deposition transcripts. ``Where money is involved,'' he observed, ``words are plentiful.''
Colleagues praised Kellam's legal talents.
``He was a very smart man. He had one of the keenest minds I've ever known,'' Bonney said. ``He kept it sharp by reading. Even though he had read law, he kept at it.''
He was also devoted to his family estate, the big white home across from the old courthouse. Every year, he and his wife, Alice, hosted an annual Thanksgiving gathering of the Kellam clan at the house, sometimes attracting more than 100 people.
Kellam himself was one of 16 children.
``Oh, he loved that place,'' said a friend and former neighbor, J.W. Buffington, former chairman of the Virginia Beach School Board. ``He has done much, much, much to restore it. The grounds are beautiful. It was an old home that he just about rebuilt. A lot of it is still original. He just restored the floors and things of that nature.''
In a 1991 interview, Kellam recalled holidays at the old family estate.
``Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, even more than Christmas,'' he said. ``It was the one holiday all of the boys always came home for. Of course, back in the old days, before we had electric here, we started Thanksgiving Day by all of the boys chopping wood for the old wood stove.''
Friends and relatives remembered Kellam as a generous man who sometimes shunned recognition for his deeds.
``Every Christmas he would round up a bunch of children, all different colors, and take them into Norfolk to department stores and all to get toys and clothes and things of that nature,'' Buffington recalled.
At work, ``He was always one to come up with something unusual for the girls at Christmas time, something on the light side, on the comical side,'' Old said. ``He'd always have a toy or something to share with the girls. All the girls in this office are missing his hugs, I'll tell you that.''
It was the same with family.
``He never asked for anything. He always was quietly providing,'' said his son Philip. ``He would go out of his way to see that it was anonymous. He provided for brothers older and younger, without asking, toward their career, their education, their family.''
During World War II, Kellam served with the Army in intelligence and as a paratrooper. He also has been active with Nimmo United Methodist Church, helping restore the historic building on Princess Anne Road.
With Kellam's death, only one of the 16 Kellam brothers and sisters survives: William, the youngest at 82, a retired insurance agent and former state senator.
He also 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.
Service will be noon Tuesday at Nimmo United Methodist Church, Virginia Beach. He will also be buried there. MEMO: Staff writer Lynn Waltz contributed to this story.Staff writer
Lynn Waltz ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by CNB