N. Thompson Powers

N. Thompson Powers, Lawyer, died January 29, 2007 at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital in Grass Valley, California of Parkinson's Lewy Bodies. He was 77. Powers was born to Marion Thompson Powers and Eloise Noyes Powers in New Orleans and raised in several eastern and midwestern cities, including Detroit, before spending his high school years in Cumberland, Maryland. At Allegany High School, Powers was class valedictorian in 1947 and winner of the Welcome Home Award (given to the outstanding senior in all phases of school life) and the Charles E. Babst Award (given to the most outstanding athlete). From 1947-51, he attended Duke University, where he had an outstanding academic and athletic record - graduating magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, winning the Robert E. Lee Student Athlete Prize in 1951, and serving as President of the Sigma Chi Fraternity and President of the Senior Class. Lettering in both baseball (1949-51) and football (1949-50), he tied the NCAA record for most touchdowns scored in a single game with six against Richmond in 1950. Equally important to him were the two touchdowns scored against archrival UNC, the first a 93-yard kickoff return in his junior year, and the second a 34-yard touchdown reception for the only touchdown in a 7-0 Duke victory his senior year. Powers turned down opportunities to play professional baseball and football to attend Harvard Law School. He graduated cum laude in 1954, and served as a lieutenant in the Navy from 1954-57. His legal career began as an associate of Steptoe & Johnson in 1957. From 1961-66, he served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, first in the Department of Labor, as Deputy Solicitor and as Special Assistant to Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz, and then as the first Executive Director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In 1965, the Department of Labor appointed him to lead an international labor management project in Brazil, which led to a life-long passion for Brazilian art, music, and culture. He returned to Steptoe in 1966, becoming a leading figure in the nascent specialty of employment law. Highlights of his legal career included serving as Managing Partner of Steptoe from 1982-84, Chairman of the Section of Public Utility, Communications, & Transportation Law of the ABA in 1995, and arguing and winning two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, International Steelworkers vs. Weber (1979) and General Telephone Company of the Southwest vs. Falcon (1982). In the landmark Weber case, Powers successfully defended his client Kaiser Aluminum Company's affirmative action program from claims of reverse discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1986, Powers relocated to Phoenix, Arizona to start Steptoe's law office there, now staffed by 52 lawyers. He retired from Steptoe in 1994, joining his client Motorola as its chief employment lawyer from 1994-99. His responsibilities at Motorola included labor relations in the many Asian countries hosting its production facilities. His passions include golf, running, jazz, and Brazilian music. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the National Academy of Arbitrators, and the Chevy Chase Club, an Executive Emeritus member of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and a past member of the Sankaty Head Golf and Beach Club and Paradise Valley Country Club. Powers is survived by his wife of 52 years, Mary Lamb Powers, three sons ~ David N. Powers, William C. Powers, and Thomas L. Powers, and five grandchildren ~ Alexandra M. Powers, Elizabeth A. Powers, William C.D. Powers, Michael A. Powers, and Edward L. Powers.