CARL R. SCHENKER Jr.

 
CARL RICHARD SCHENKER, JR.  
Retired partner of the law firm O'Melveny & Myers, died suddenly on May 31, 2012 in Washington. He is survived by his wife, Susan Sherman Richardson, his sisters, Dana Schroeder (Jon) and Noel Schenker and by 15 nieces and nephews, and a great-niece and great-nephew, all of whom adored him. He was predeceased by his father, Carl Richard Schenker Sr., his mother Frances Schenker Newell, and his step-father Martin Newell.Carl grew up in Minneapolis. He graduated from Stanford University and from Stanford Law School, where he was president of the Law Review. He first clerked for Judge Shirley Hufstedler of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, then for Justice Lewis Powell at the Supreme Court of the United States. He joined O'Melveny & Myers in 1976, one of a scant handful of young hires to populate the new Washington office, and played a significant role in developing the firm's litigation practice in Washington. He was also a lifelong athlete, running track and playing basketball in school and college. In later life he took up tennis and blackbelt hiking with his wife Susan. In the last decade of his life he devoted himself to serving as mentor to younger lawyers, and to Civil War scholarship, a new discipline in which he distinguished himself as he had all his life at whatever he turned a hand to. Carl was a gentleman and a gentle man. He was funny, he was good company, he was enormously proud of his nieces and nephews; he loved photography, books and travel; he loved family, and he loved his wife. He touched and made better more lives than he ever knew, and he is deeply mourned and missed. A Memorial Service will be held at Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church, 3401 Nebraska Ave. NW, Washington, DC, at 11 a.m. on Monday June 11. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made in his memory to Catholic Relief Services, (http://crs.org) or So Others Might Eat (www.some.org.)