DATE: Tuesday, July 29, 1997                TAG: 9707290292

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  119 lines

LAWYER J. HUGO MADISON DIES; ACTIVIST AND NSU BOARD MEMBER

J. Hugo Madison had plans for this coming Saturday. He had signed up to attend a reunion of past and current residents in his Virginia Beach neighborhood, a project he had supported with advice and encouragement to the civic league's president and money donated to help pull it off.

Not very earthshaking. Nothing like the civil rights struggles Madison had fought in the courts as an NAACP lawyer. Or the coming into its own of Norfolk State University, which he had helped lead during two stints on its Board of Visitors. Or the development of the current generation of black political leaders, several of whom started out working in his law office.

But his backing of the reunion says much about Madison, who died unexpectedly Saturday at 76 after a brief illness.

He was, friends and colleagues said Monday, a people person. It showed when he fought racial segregation, when he lobbied for more scholarship aid for disadvantaged students, when he mentored young adults - future leaders - giving them jobs in his law office and telling them ``good job'' when it was warranted, to keep them going in the right direction.

And even when he helped the civic league president around the corner on issues like traffic and neighborhood reunions.

``. . . You could go to him and he'd listen to you,'' said his neighbor and civic league president, Audrey W. Mills. ``I think when people are concerned about people, it's natural to spread your goodness in more than one direction.''

Madison did just that.

United Way and Boys and Girls Clubs. Church and bank and school and hospital boards. Professional organizations. Legal counsel for mission projects and service clubs. This year, Madison became involved with the Hampton Roads Committee of 200-Plus Men, originally formed to welcome new President Marie V. McDemmond to Norfolk State University, but kept going - with his encouragement - to keep the collected talent and energy working for the community's good.

``I just truly valued him,'' said George C. Crawley, assistant executive director of Norfolk's housing authority and an acquaintance for 35 years who only this year worked closely with him. Madison's death ``certainly leaves an empty feeling.''

Those who knew Madison praised his zeal and tireless push for pet projects, often hidden under his courtly manner, from negotiating for state money for new NSU dormitories to convincing all but one of Norfolk's judges to agree to close their courtrooms the day after Martin Luther King died.

Tough and tenacious though Madison was, Crawley said, ``he was always very much a gentleman.''

That served him well when, as a young lawyer, he helped bring new respect to legal practitioners of color, in an era when white judges used racial epithets from the bench. He succeeded using meticulous preparation and an uncanny skill with witnesses, friendly and unfriendly. ``A good feel for people,'' said William T. Mason Jr., from Madison's old law firm.

That people thing again.

``He's the reason I became a lawyer,'' said Robert F. Hagans, chairman of Virginia Beach's School Board. Madison's godson, Hagans began working as a young teen cleaning out Madison's law offices.

``He taught me a lot about scruples, and doing what's right,'' Hagans said Monday evening. ``He always believed that if you could help somebody, you should help him.''

That meant Madison worked, often free, for the NAACP in civil-rights cases, fighting to integrate Norfolk schools and defending college students charged in lunch-counter sit-ins.

``Hugo Madison was one of the last group of attorneys who worked with us during the - I guess he is the last. . . . He is the last of that vanishing breed of attorney who guided us during those civil rights battles,'' said Dr. Hugo A. Owens, another civil rights pioneer and former vice mayor of Chesapeake.

Madison also was guiding future leaders. Among those he hired, trained and mentored, in addition to Hagans, were William P. Robinson Jr., now a state delegate from Norfolk, and Junius P. Fulton Jr., a Norfolk Circuit Court judge.

``He was a great role model for me. . . . He was something of a role model for my era,'' said Herbert M. Collins Sr., vice mayor of Norfolk, who like many of his generation coming of age in the 1960s looked up to the ``old guard'' of early civil-rights activists like Madison.

``We were groomed and trained by the Hugo Madisons, and our responsibility is to groom the next generation.''

Madison in 1969 became the first rector of newly independent Norfolk State College, when he was active in Democratic politics. He originally had attended the school while also working construction in the early 1940s. He was on the board that hired 22-year president Harrison B. Wilson in 1975.

Madison was reappointed to the NSU board in February by Republican Gov. George F. Allen, and led the official welcome earlier this month for new President McDemmond, who also called him a role model.

``Mr. Madison really did touch my life, even if it was for a very short period of time,'' McDemmond said.

William R. Miller III, rector of the university's Board of Visitors, said: ``Obviously, there's a tremendous void that's not going to be possible to fill because of his many years and vast experience with Norfolk State University.''

Miller added: ``Hugo always told you exactly where you stood and where he was coming from. He was very forthright, even when he disagreed with you.''

And he wasn't afraid to disagree. As a black lawyer in mostly white courts. As as supporter in the early 1970s of Gov. Mills E. Godwin Jr. when black voters overwhelmingly supported his opponent. And this spring, when he unsuccessfully opposed a retirement package for outgoing NSU President Wilson as too generous, saying more money should go to scholarships for students in need.

It's not surprising, then, that Madison's wife, Viola H. Madison, plans to set up an NSU scholarship fund in her husband's memory, for future teachers. She taught, and one of their daughters teaches. Another daughter is a lawyer, and a son works with troubled children.

They appreciated the outpouring of sympathy and support since Saturday.

``We have so many friends . . . . They came in droves from all over,'' Viola Madison said Monday.

``We're just happy - we think he was the greatest father and husband anybody could want.''

Gov. Allen's office said the governor is preparing a tribute to be read at Madison's funeral Wednesday. No thought had been given yet to Madison's replacement on NSU's board.

``It was a shock,'' said Madison's pastor at First Baptist Church in Norfolk, Robert G. Murray. ``He will be greatly missed.'' MEMO: Complete obituary appears on Page B6. ILLUSTRATION: STAFF/1966 photo

In 1969, J. Hugo Madison became the first Norfolk State rector. He

returned to the board in February.

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