ALUMNI PROFILES From All Four Corners Smithmoore P. MYERS ’39 Spokane, Washington n every school or university you will find a few exceptional individuals who have made a truly defining contribution to the life and character of their institution. I At Gonzaga Law School, Smitty Myers is one of those individuals. Born in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1914, Smitty Myers came to Spokane at the age of three with his mother, his six-year-old brother Robert, and his nine-year-old sister Nellie. If young Smitty and his siblings had one great advantage in life it was their mother Julia, a single mother and a woman of tremendous strength and spirit who was devoted to her children and their welfare. Although his parents had divorced when Smitty was quite young, his mother went out of her way to ensure that their father remained a regular part of the children’s lives. During his first five years in Spokane, Smitty attended five different grade schools. As one might expect, he excelled academi- cally except for one anomalous “F” he received as a first grader in, of all subjects, public speaking. Smitty’s mother and teacher conferred and concluded the grade was due to the young boy’s shyness and not his lack of ability. Given Smitty’s subsequent prowess in debate, legal argumentation, and public speaking, it would seem their assessment of the situation was accurate. Within a year of arriving in Spokane, Smitty’s mother found employment in the women’s shoe department of the Crescent, a job she would have for the next two decades. Although it was a demanding six-day-a-week job, Julia Myers made sure she was home every noon to fix the children’s lunch. There was never any question of the priority her children held in her life. In 1922, the family moved to a house in Peaceful Valley. The $15 a month rental provided them with a small home that had one cold water faucet, and toilet facilities located on the screen porch at the rear of the house. As Smitty recalls, they felt very comfortable in their Peaceful Valley residence. They would have been content to stay had not tragedy struck in 1924, when Smitty’s older brother, Robert, died of rheumatic fever. Grieving her loss, Julia Myers could not endure the bittersweet memories so the family moved to an apartment at Fourth and Lincoln on Spokane’s lower South Hill. Now attending the Hawthorne School, Smitty was told one day that there would be a debate with a neighboring school and that he had been selected to participate. Although he wasn’t quite sure what it was all about, he prepared and did well. His one enduring memory of the occasion was that he liked it. On that day, a seed was planted. At Lewis and Clarke High School Smitty was a member of the two-person freshman team which vanquished the upper classes in the school’s intramural debate competition. His forensic skills were so good that he made the school’s varsity debate team as a freshman. Myers also THE LAWYER SUMMER 2004 – 15 ALUMNI PROFILES excelled academically. He finished his final year at Lewis and didn’t have a driver’s license. In fact, he did not even know how to Clarke as Senior Class Vice-President, with the second highest drive. But Smitty was a quick study and the boss was a trusting academic average in his class. soul. He gave Smitty his personal automobile to practice with and There was never any doubt that Smitty Myers was headed to when late afternoon rolled around, he put Smitty in the driver’s college and that that college would be Gonzaga. Just as he had in seat of a truck with instructions to deliver kegs to a drinking high school, Smitty became active in debate and student govern- establishment in one of Spokane’s more questionable areas. Smitty ment. He enjoyed the academic challenge and the quality of successfully negotiated the roads and the alleys and began rolling instruction he received from teachers such as Fr. Leo Robinson and the kegs off the truck. After observing the relatively slight delivery from Fr. Albert Lemieux who was his debate coach. man wrestling with the heavy kegs, the tavern owner asked Smitty To help finance his education, Myers took on the 1:00 a.m. to if he intended to make a career out of beer deliveries. Smitty told 7a.m. shift at Sacred Heart Hospital where he worked the switch- him he was a law student just doing work for the summer. The board and ran the admitting office. It was 42 hours, seven days a tavern owner suggested Smitty would be better served by sticking week, but during the occasional quiet times, Smitty found time to to law. For Smitty, it was advice well received and gratefully study. followed. At Gonzaga, Myers was an outstanding member of a very In law school as in his undergraduate years, Smitty had the successful varsity debate team. On one occasion Gonzaga’s full confidence and respect of his peers. He was a three time class forensic juggernaut went up against a team from the University of president, and as senior he was elected President of the Student Bar Idaho that included a young man named Lewis Orland who would Association. later become very well known to both Myers and generations of By his final year of law school, Smitty’s academic skill and Gonzaga students. (See news clip from 1935 in Law Briefs page solid personal reputation attracted the attention of Superior Court 32.) Judge Richard Webster, who offered Smitty a highly coveted position as his clerk. In that capacity, Myers briefed cases for the judge. He also conducted interviews with and prepared assessment reports on young people slated to appear on the court’s weekly Smithmoore P. Myers ’39 juvenile docket. It was an excellent job that payed $150 a month, Spokane, Washington which was considerably more than most young lawyers in Spokane were making at that time. Because he needed transporta- tion to conduct these interviews, Smitty put down $250 to buy a 1932 Ford Model C. Thanks to prior experience, he was now fully During his undergraduate career, Smitty Myers served as licensed and sufficiently skilled to make use of his new purchase. president of his sophomore and junior classes, and as a senior he In April of 1939, Smitty’s mother collapsed at her work from was elected Gonzaga Student Body President. He completed his complications brought on by pneumonia. Her health was poor and studies with the top academic rank in his class, graduating summa he and his sister Nellie agreed she would not return to work. cum laude in 1936. Smitty received his degree summa cum laude that spring but By the time he began his senior year, Smitty fully understood he put off taking the bar exam due to his mother’s poor health. He that his talents and interests were a perfect match for a career in continued working at the court and studying for the bar in the law. But law school would have delayed his ability to contribute evening. In 1940 he finally took the bar and, as he found out some economically to the family. On a Sunday walk with his mother he twenty years later, received the highest grade in the state. That carefully broached the idea of going to law school. Although an same year, he was asked to return to the Law School as an additional income would have helped, Julia Myers didn’t hesitate a instructor of real property. From the moment he began, Smitty moment in her response. “If that is what you want to do,” she said, Myers loved teaching and knew he wanted it to be a part of his “then that is what we will do.” professional life. Any doubts Smitty may have had about his presumptive In 1942, with World War II looming, Myers received a call vocation, were dispelled early in his law school experience. His from Creighton Flynn, a law school classmate from Tacoma. Flynn subjects interested him and his teachers won his admiration. He told him about a new naval officer program designed to train saw some very different but effective approaches in the classroom. administrative officers who could free trained pilots for flight duty. There was the very scholarly and patient Dean James Emmet Smitty liked the idea and convinced another classmate, Norm Royce; the feisty and demanding Mike Kerley; and the highly Johnson, to apply. Both were accepted and received their orders for professional Frank Weaver, who would go on to serve on the State the Quonset Pointe Naval Station in Rhode Island. After the two Supreme Court. month training, the officer in charge asked Smitty to stay on as his Finances were always an issue for students during these times Chief Administrative Assistant. Smitty accepted and remained an and Smitty tried his best to make ends meet. One summer, while additional year at Quonset Pointe performing administrative duties working in a local brewery warehouse, the boss asked Smitty to and teaching naval law. make a beer delivery for him. The only problem was that Smitty The following summer, Myers applied for and was accepted THE LAWYER SUMMER 2004 – 16 ALUMNI PROFILES to train as a non-pilot navigator. During his navigator training in improved, legal writing courses were made part of the curriculum New York City, he received a call from his law school friend, Jack and ABA standards limiting outside work for students were Close, who asked Smitty if he wanted to join him in the VR2 enforced.