Richard Spencer Lombard

Richard Spencer Lombard former general counsel of Exxon Corporation, passed away on October 18, 2007 in Tucson, Arizona, at age 79. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Arlene Olson Lombard; his daughter, Anne S. Lombard (Mark Cammack); his son, James P. Lombard; his sister, Elaine Newland, and four grandchildren, Jessie and Jimmy Cammack and Alex and Kitty Lombard. Born in Panama, in the former Canal Zone, in 1928, he was the son of the late Alice and Eugene Lombard. After graduating from Balboa High School at the age of sixteen, he left Panama for Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he enrolled as a freshman at Harvard College. He was drafted at eighteen and served in the Army Air Corps for fifteen months. He returned to complete his A.B. at Harvard in 1949 and his J.D. at Harvard Law School in 1952. He moved to New York City, married, passed the New York Bar Exam, and became an associate at Haight, Gardner, Poor, and Havens. In 1955 he and his wife, Arlene, moved to Caracas, Venezuela, where he was a member of the law department of Creole Petroleum Corporation, Exxon's Venezuelan affiliate. He became head of Creole's law department in 1963 and returned to New York in 1965 to join the law department of Exxon Corporation. In 1969, he moved with his family to Houston, Texas, as associate general counsel of Humble Oil and Refining Company (now Exxon Company, U.S.A.) He returned with his family to New York as an assistant general counsel of Exxon Corporation in 1971 and became general counsel in 1973, serving in that position until his retirement in 1993 (also as vice president from 1980 to 1993). He was of counsel at Baker and Botts in Dallas, Texas, from 1993 to 1996. A respected authority on international commercial law and private international conflict resolution, he was the author of American-Venezuelan Private International Law (1965), a trustee of the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law at Columbia University from 1977 to 2007, and a director of the American Arbitration Association (and chairman of the board from 1983 to 1986). He was a trustee of the Practicing Law Institute, a trustee and past chairman of the International and Comparative Law Center of the Southwestern Legal Foundation, a member of the American Law Institute, a director of Volunteers of Legal Service, Inc., a director of the Friends of the Hague Academy, Inc., and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He was a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the American Bar Association, and the State Bars of New York and Texas. After his retirement, he served as an arbitrator in international and domestic commercial disputes. A memorial service will be held on Friday, October 26, 2007 at 1:00 p.m. at St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church in Tucson. Donations to the Primavera Foundation, 702 South 6th Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85701 would be greatly appreciated. Arrangements entrusted to EAST LAWN PALMS MORTUARY, 5801 E. Grant Road.