of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 367

MEMORIAL SERVICES FOR FORMER GOVERNOR
HARRY W. NICE

Courthouse, April 2, 1941
Baltimore

IT is entirely fitting that we should be gathered here this afternoon within
the very walls wherein Mr. Nice spent so much of his professional career,
and that we should be speaking before that august body whose members Mr.
Nice himself so often had addressed.

I accepted unhesitatingly the invitation to participate in these Memorial
Exercises, because it has been possible for me to observe and to estimate the
qualities of mind and heart which were possessed by the late Harry W. Nice.

It may be somewhat unusual but the fact is that I have occupied two
offices which formerly he had filled. One of these was connected with the
Judicial Branch of the State Government—the office of State's Attorney—the
other with the Executive Branch. Succeeding to those offices it is possible and
gratifying to make acknowledgement on the part of the State, of the service
rendered to his Government by the man to whose memory we pay tribute today.

Appropriate it is that public notice be taken in the highest Court of this
City of his life's work, and of his qualities. In this Temple of Justice he
distinguished himself. As representative of the State, in the role of Prosecut-
ing Attorney, later as private counsel in the various Courts, he manifested his
abilities. His chosen profession was the law and he gave to every client the
fullest measure of his talents, resourcefulness and unflagging interest.

If one were asked to single out our late associate's distinguishing attribute
—-although he had many—we could say it was friendliness. His friendliness
to all mankind, in general, and the friendship he bestowed upon those within
his wide circle of intimates, was. boundless. It was clear and deep—like the
silent waters of the swift, flowing stream, carried on down life's pathway till
the last.

Cicero, among the ancients, and Emerson, of later fame, understood and
wrote of "the mysterious cement of the soul, " Friendliness, of which enduring
bond Harry W. Nice gave evidence in his philosophy of life, based upon his
wide experience.

He had long been schooled by interest and participation in public affairs.
He enjoyed natural talents which were admirably suited for involvement in
active struggles for public achievements. He had the breadth of view, catholic-
ity of thought, and plain sense of justice that made him an adversary whom all
would respect whether they were victim or victor in the contest. The course he
followed was never charted by prejudice but was the product of his heart and
his brain.

An advocate—in Court or on the public rostrum—he fought fairly and in