Richard Kirschner

A leading member of the labor union bar in Philadelphia for 60 years, Richard (Rick) Kirschner, 88, died on November 30, 2020 at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC. Born on April 3, 1932 in Philadelphia to public school teachers Rebekah Muller Kirschner and Walter Kirschner, Rick attended Central High, earned a B.A. from Penn State (1954), an LL.B. from the University of Pennsylvania (1957), and a Master's in Law and Public Policy from American University in Washington, DC (2002). He continued his education into his 70's, receiving a teaching certification from American University in 2011 and completing training as a docent for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016. His political and moral views were shaped by the era of Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). His parents taught English and History at Roxborough High and had friends who were blacklisted and lost their jobs as a result of HUAC investigations supposedly aimed at identifying Communist threats to the United States. His parents too were investigated as Communist sympathizers. During his career Rick represented both private and public employee labor unions, first as an associate with the Philadelphia firm of Lou Wilderman, then with Wilderman, Markowitz and Kirschner, and Kirschner, Walters, and Willig. He left Philadelphia in 1982 to found the law firm Kirschner, Weinberg & Dempsey in Washington, DC. That firm represented the national office of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which became the largest union in the AFL-CIO. In 1990, Rick dissolved that law firm and established a new firm, Kirschner & Gartrell, P.C., with his wife, M. Kay Gartrell (J.D. Yale 1967), whom he married in 1978 when she was a partner in the Philadelphia firm of Goodman & Ewing. The new firm renewed Kirschner's relationship with AFSCME Council 13 in Pennsylvania, then led by native Philadelphian Edward Keller. He represented Council 13 and its related health and welfare funds until his death. Rick worked with AFSCME from its inception in Pennsylvania. He was the primary draftsman of the Public Employee Relations Act of 1970, which established for the first time the right of public employees in Pennsylvania to organize. He later drafted the original Declaration of Trust which established the largest union-management jointly administered health and welfare fund in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Employees Benefit Trust Fund (PEBTF). Managed by equal numbers of Union Trustees and Management Trustees (selected by the Governor) the PEBTF today provides health benefits to some 70,000 state employees and their dependents, covering more than 200,000 lives. Throughout his life Rick sought to be a voice on behalf of marginal populations and in favor of human and civil rights. His activities included participating in the Marches on Washington to end the Vietnam War; boycotting grapes in the 1970s and working with Cesar Chavez, a Latino American Civil Rights Activist and co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA); and supporting the Native American rights movement, to name just a few. In 1964 Rick represented Haverford College scholarship student Russell Stetler, an important student anti-war activist in Philadelphia, whose Board of Education scholarship was being cancelled because of his political activities. In his winning brief before the Board of Education, Kirschner pleaded that "[The Board] must continue to educate a brillant mind, regardless of the unorthodoxies it expresses. It must never forget the crucial necessity of academic freedom in a democratic society." Stetler's scholarship was saved, and he later became a lawyer and the National Mitigation Coordinator for the federal death penalty projects begun in 2005. Kirschner and Stetler reconnected in 2008 when Stetler spoke at Penn Law School and there he met Rick's youngest daughter, Meredith, a Penn Law student at the time. In addition to his wife of 42 years, Kay Gartrell, and their daughter, Meredith Kirschner of Haddon Township, NJ, Rick is survived by four children from his first marriage (1953-1978) to Beverly Yanoff (deceased) – Jason Kirschner of Asheville, NC; Linda Sue Kirschner of Doylestown, PA; Lee Kirschner (Hope) of Bala Cynwyd, PA; and Stefi Lynn Kirschner (Gilbert Schneider) of Pittsburgh, PA. He is also survived by his stepson Daniel Rinella of Philadelphia. He was predeceased by his brother, Dr. Robert H. Kirschner of Chicago, IL, an internationally known forensic pathologist and human rights advocate (see New York Times, Sept. 18, 2002), and by his parents. His sister Joanne Kirschner Oppenheimer (Tim) of Springfield, MA survives as does his sister-in-law Dr. Barbara Kirschner (Robert) of Chicago, IL, a renowned pediatric gastroenterologist associated with the University of Chicago. Rick leaves behind eight grandchildren, six nephews and a niece. Rick will be remembered as a person who was always first in line to help others, but just as importantly, as a man who was good-humored, warm, funny, incomparably generous, unceasingly curious, and as a pillar of wisdom for all who were lucky enough to know him. He relentlessly promoted the successes of those around him, whether legally, emotionally or financially, and he basked in the accomplishments of the people he loved. His moral compass was unwavering and unrelenting, and he stopped at nothing to pursue justice in all facets of his life. Rick touched the lives of so many who knew him and his legacy will live on in all those who were fortunate enough to have crossed his path. A virtual Memorial Service will be held December 19, 2020 at 6 P.M. ET, a link to which will be on the Gawler's Funeral Home of Washington, DC's website (www.dignitymemorial.com). Donations in Kirschner's honor may be made to the ACLU, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, the Equal Justice Initiative, the Human Rights Campaign, or any cause supporting civil and human rights. GAWLER FUNERAL HOME of Washington, DC