The Atlanta Lawyer June/July 2014 | Page 12

In Memoriam: Randolph W. Thrower

Service and integrity

Randolph W. Thrower (Sept. 5, 1913-Mar. 8, 2014)
Remarks By Paul Cadenhead
Fellows LaBriola LLP

A

nother great lawyer, who served all among us, has
departed our midst. But he leaves not only memories
of devoted friendship, but also a bequest of future
leaders who were touched by his exemplary life. Those so
influenced by Randolph’s quiet influence will frame our future
for integrity and service, as he did during his long benevolent
life. Those of us who knew him personally will remember the
warmth of his personal friendship.
His greatness merged aspirational vision with personal deeds.
Paraphrasing Rudyard Kipling, he walked with
kings, but kept the common touch. Randolph
was a man with broad peripheral vision that he
translated into detailed action. He was inspired
by the grandeur of mountains and Nature, but
loved and cultivated plants in his personal
garden. He valued accumulated experience
of age, but trusted the energy of youth. I am a
beneficiary of that trust in youth.

He opposed corruption and graft in state government, and in
the fight engaged the energy of youth. I was privileged to be
a part of the youth whom he trusted. In 1958, as president
of The Atlanta Bar Association, Randolph responded to a
request from Fulton County’s Solicitor General (now District
Attorney) for assistance in reversing apparent corruption
and graft in state government. He sought help from leading
Atlanta Attorneys, all of whom declined to become involved
in the political hassle. In desperation, Randolph turned to
me, a young, inexperienced thirty-one-year-old attorney. His

“...he leaves not only memories
of devoted friendship, but also a
bequest of future leaders who were
touched by his exemplary life.”

Randolph served God through years of service
in his church, and our country as an officer in
the Marine Corps during World War II, and later
as US Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Professionally, he
served wealthy clients through his expertise as a tax attorney,
and the poor as president of Atlanta Legal Aid Society. He
embodied strength of right against might when he resigned the
high office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue rather than
obey an order from his boss, President Richard Nixon, that
he use the might of his office against the president’s political
enemies and in favor of political friends.

He served his profession through national organizations,
and locally as president of The Atlanta Bar Association. He
believed in and supported professionals in government, but
fought for individual voting rights by opposing Georgia’s
infamous County Unit System of voting. He believed in dignity
of all humans and fought dehumanizing segregation of races
in public places and schools. And on and on.

12 THE ATLANTA LAWYER

June/July 2014

expressed confidence emboldened me, and we turned the
task into a successful two years, indicting, convicting and
imprisoning state officials who had misused their trust for
personal financial gain. This undertaking resulted in a full
chapter in the publication of Atlanta and its Lawyers,1 but for
me it created a bond of lifetime friendship and admiration for
Randolph, who was truly a man for all seasons and a servant
in all environments.
At my retirement party given by my firm- appropriately for both
Randolph and me, at Atlanta Botanical Gardens- Randolph
was a presenter. In typically Thrower fashion, he intermixed
humor and seriousness.
Atlanta and Its Lawyers (A Century of Vision) by Lea Agnew and Jo
Ann Haden Miller. © The Atlanta Bar Association, 1988.

1

The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association