H. Kemp MacDaniel, 82, judge on Court of Special Appeals

By Johnathon E. Briggs
Sun Staff

July 18, 2003

H. Kemp MacDaniel, a retired judge of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals who served eight years in the House of Delegates, died yesterday of heart failure at his home in Wynnewood. He was 82.
Judge MacDaniel was born in Baltimore and raised in Arbutus, a community he had a great affinity for and where he was active in civic, business and community affairs.

After graduating from Catonsville High School in 1939, Judge MacDaniel worked in the passenger traffic department of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for three years. He then served with the Army infantry in the European Theater during World War II.

He attended the University of Maryland Law School after military service and earned his law degree in 1951. He was in private law practice, first in Baltimore and then in Towson, for 15 years.

Before becoming a judge, Mr. MacDaniel, a conservative lawyer with a zest for politics, was urged by politically minded friends to run for the House of Delegates. He won election to the House as a Democrat in 1958, representing the 11th Legislative District - Arbutus and Halethorpe - until 1966.

He was instrumental in the passage of a bill regulating the home improvement industry and establishing a five-member regulatory commission in the 1962 General Assembly session. The MacDaniel Act, as it became known, required the licensing of contractors and salespeople, and created a code of ethics for the industry.

Gov. J. Millard Tawes appointed him to the Baltimore County Circuit Court in 1966. He served for 11 years.

As a judge, his cases ranged from serious to surreal. In 1977, he upheld a county Board of Appeals decision allowing a farmer to continue drying corn on his farm in the western county where it was surrounded by a residential neighborhood.
 

In 1975, Judge MacDaniel dismissed seven of 12 counts in the embezzlement, bribery and extortion charges against Frank J. Pelz, former Baltimore sheriff. "Others must have known what was going on," he said at the time.

His appointment to the Circuit Court was "a goal that I finally reached after many years of hoping," Judge MacDaniel told The Sun in 1966. He served on the bench from 1979 to 1982. He was an avid golfer and a member of the Rolling Road Country Club.

Judge MacDaniel was appointed by acting Gov. Blair Lee III in 1977 to the Court of Special Appeals for the 2nd Appellate Circuit, which includes Baltimore and Harford counties. He replaced Judge W. Albert Menchine, who retired that year from the state's second-highest court.

"He was always getting involved with political types of things," said his daughter Kathleen Spice of Catonsville. "He was a big supporter of Governor Ehrlich because he was an Arbutus boy."

Services are pending.

Judge MacDaniel's wife of 56 years, the former Madeline E. Leitz, died in 1996.

In addition to Mrs. Spice, he is survived by three other daughters, Pamela Goodman of Ocean City, Elise Cauthorn of Red House, W.Va., and Dyane Brandt of Ridgefield, Conn.; three sisters, Shirley Beyer, Carol Neubauer, and Jean Plowman, all of Halethorpe; two brothers, Larry MacDaniel and Alan MacDaniel, both of Halethorpe; seven grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
 
 

Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun