Charles H. Morin

85, who founded the Boston law firm of Gadsby & Hannah and then relocated to Washington D.C. to form Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin, died August 20 at his home at the Jupiter Hills Club in Florida. He had heart and lung ailments. Mr. Morin, a graduate of Weston (MA) High School, Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College, served as an Army Captain and aide to General Thomas Hickey in Southeast Asia during World War II. He returned to Boston in 1946 and entered Boston University Law School, where he was Editor of the Law Review. He frequented local golf clubs and downtown jazz clubs as he completed his law degree cum laude in 1949. He began law practice with his father and two brothers at Morin & Morin. He married Elizabeth Ann Donnelly of Worcester, daughter of Superior Court Judge James C. Donnelly, in 1951, and before the summer of 1955, they had three sons - Charles Jr., James and Peter. In the early 1950's, Mr. Morin served as the CIA's Director of the Philippine desk, during which he was involved in the CIA campaign to suppress the Communist insurgency and promote the election of Ramon Magsaysay to the country's Presidency. While practicing as a tax lawyer and litigator during the mid 1950's, he lectured on taxation and estate planning at B.U. Around 1955 Mr. Morin's practice turned to securities and financial services law, and he eventually would come to represent dozens of members of the New York Stock Exchange. In the late 1950s Mr. Morin met Charles Colson, and in 1960 they formed Colson & Morin, with offices in Boston and Washington. Within two years, SEC Chairman Edward Gadsby and Raytheon Corporation General Counsel Paul Hannah joined the firm, to make it Gadsby, Hannah Colson & Morin. During the 1960s, various named partners were added and subtracted, until in 1968 Mr. Morin and Mr. Colson decided simply to call the firm Gadsby & Hannah, with the Colson and Morin as its co-managing partners. Shortly after Colson left the firm to become Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon, Mr. Morin was for a brief time the favored candidate to become Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission. The appointment was nixed by Attorney General John Mitchell, whose personal animosity toward Colson found a victim. Mr. Morin turned this loss into a gain when he met and befriended his replacement, William Casey, and with Casey's support built lasting and valuable friendships with SEC officials who went on to senior level positions at Wall Street firms. Mr. Morin also served as Chairman of the Presidential Commission on the National Policy Toward Gambling, from 1972 to 1975. In 1972, Mr. Morin advocated to the Gadsby & Hannah partners that they merge with the Washington firm of Dickstein & Shapiro. When the Gadsby & Hannah members demurred, Messrs. Morin and Colson left to join Dickstein, Shapiro, Colson & Morin. In 1978, Mr. Morin provided the financing for the founding of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law Studies at the Boston University School of Law. Through this center, Boston University became the first law school in the United States to offer master's degrees in banking law and international banking law. Mr. Morin "semi-retired" from DS&M in 1992, but he continued to work thereafter for many years, serving as counsel to the independent Board of Directors of Federated Investors and taking on a variety of responsibilities in the management of the Jupiter Hills Club. During his life, Mr. Morin was a member of the Charles River Country Club, Brae Burn Country Club, The Algonquin Club, the Harvard Club, Oyster Harbors Club, New York Athletic Club, Columbia Country Club, Burning Tree Club, and Rolling Rock Club. He and his wife built a house at Jupiter Hills in 1984 and joined the club that year. Mr. Morin was an aficionado of jazz and classical music, authority of fine wine, and talented raconteur. His peerless accounts of the tribulations of Down East Mainer Pervis Webber will be missed by many. He leaves his wife of fifty-six years, Elizabeth; three sons, Charles of Woburn, MA, James of Coral Gables, FL, and Peter of Scituate, MA; nine grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. The family will receive friends from 6 PM - 8 PM, Friday, August 24, 2007 at Taylor & Modeen Funeral Home, 250 Center St., JUPITER, FL 561-744-2030. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 10 AM, Saturday, August 25, 2007 at St. Jude Catholic Church, 204 US Hwy #1, Tequesta, FL with Rev. Fr. Thomas Vengayil the Celebrant. Interment will follow in Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery, Royal Palm Beach, FL. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Ave Maria Univ., 1025 Commons Cir., Naples FL 34119