Merritt W. “Tim” Green II
1930 ~ 2016
Merritt W. “Tim”
Green, II, a prominent trial lawyer in Toledo and Michigan for over 50 years
and captain of the 1952 Michigan Wolverines football team, died May 7 in
Traverse City. He was 85 years old.
Born Dec. 30, 1930
in Toledo to Martha Dern and Merritt Green, Tim graduated from Devilbiss High
School in 1948 and attended Staunton Military Academy in Virginia before
beginning his college career in Ann Arbor.
He played defensive end for the Wolverines, going to the Rose Bowl in
1951. He was named captain his senior
year – an honor he always valued because fellow teammates made him their
choice.
Just four years
out of U of M Law School in 1960, Green put himself in the middle of a
controversial dock worker’s strike by advising his clients to ignore a Common
Pleas Court injunction to stop picketing.
He was charged with contempt of court in a case that went up to the U.S.
Supreme Court, which two years later found unanimously in his favor. His father, Merritt W. Green, argued the case
before the Warren court. “In re Green”
established the National Labor Relations Board’s exclusive authority over
peaceful labor disputes within its jurisdiction and secondly, strengthened the
protections for attorneys in advising clients.
The successful
outcome built Green’s reputation within the labor community, and he would soon
join with labor lawyer Gerald Lackey to form the Green & Lackey law firm in
the 1960s. The firm at one point
represented the majority of the city’s labor unions including the United Auto
Workers, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
International Longshoremens’s Union, Retail Clerk’s Association, U.S. Steel
Workers, Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, and for a time, the Teamsters’
Union. As the firm evolved, Green
represented members in personal injury lawsuits while Lackey was chief contract
negotiator. By 1980, the firm had
expanded to become Green, Lackey, Nusbaum, Phillips, and Harris.
Tim had a deep and
instinctive bent for social justice along with an abiding interest in politics,
leading to his participation with hundreds of other lawyers in voting rights
and registration campaigns in Alabama and Mississippi in the mid 1960s, at the
height of the national civil rights movement.
Locally, he was a member of the Board of Community Relations, created to
improve hiring practices for minorities.
Tim specialized in
maritime law and represented the families of several seamen after the sinking
of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975. Early
in his career he served as a county judge in Waterville, OH.
He was a founding
member of Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, along with his father, Gerald
Lackey, Tom Willging, and Louise Jacobson.
When ABLE sued the City of Toledo for discriminatory hiring and
promotion practices of its police and fire departments, he argued and won those
cases in federal district court. He also
tried ABLE’s suit aimed at improving substandard conditions in the Lucas County
Jail.
He labor
involvement and civil rights work led to an association with then Detroit
lawyer Dean Robb and finally his move to the Rob law firm in Traverse City in
1990. In 1996 he became of counsel to
the Grant Parsons law firm.
Tim was an avid
pilot who became hooked through a free flight offer and went on to earn his
instrument rating, logging over 2,000 hours in his Cessna Turbo 210 and B-55
Beech Baron across the U.S., Mexico, and Central America. Zihuatanejo, GRO., Mexico became the home of
his heart, and he traveled there for over 40 years.
His is survived by
his loving wife, Patti; sons, Merrit W. (Terry) Green III, and David Green;
daughter, Sue (Joe) Beckler; and grandchildren, Kelly (Herb) Milem, Jason
Green, Annie (Ryan) Loser, Timothy Green, Matthew Green, and George Arnold. He also leaves behind special Zihuatanejo
friends Orlando Espino and wife, Rosalinda.
He was predeceased
by a brother, Denis Green and daughter, Robin Arnold.
Memorial services
are planned in the summer in Toledo and Traverse City.
The family suggest
that any tributes be in the form of contributions to Advocates for Basic Legal
Equality.
Please share memories
and condolences with Tim’s family below:
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ReplyDeleteDear Pat,
ReplyDeleteKay and I just arrived in Northport this week and were deeply saddened to learn of Tim's passing through the obituary in The Leelanau Enterprise. We went to Happy Hour the other evening and had a long conversation about you and Tim with Paul, sitting at the bar in almost the exact seats where we first met you and Tim about fifteen years ago. We enjoyed you two and our subsequent get-togethers very much, warmly delighted to remember you and Tim visiting us in our home in Tucson.
When we moved to Placitas NM four years ago we met in our HOA an attorney from Ohio, also involved in labor law who knew Tim - I'm sorry I don't remember his name, we see him but once a year - and we talked about Tim and his meaningful career in the law. We are here only until the end of May, and fear we won't be here for Tim's memorial service. The cottage is for sale now and it's likely that we won't return to our dear cottage. Our email address is above; we'd love to hear from you any time.
Know that we are thinking of you, and fondly,
Chuck and Kay Smith
77 Tierra Madre Road Placitas, New Mexico 87043
chuckkay1@mac.com