Thomas Lavell Secrest

West Point, 1970

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Gerry gibson on August 17, 2020:

I did not know Tom at USMA, our paths converged after graduation. We served in the same wretched, drug-sodden tank battalion in Germany as our first active duty station. Our paths parted for a while -->Tom stayed with tanks, and I went off to do spooky things,chasing Russians in East Germany. We both left the Army at about the same time, and then we both entered law school--Tom at the University of Texas, and I at the University of Florida. Tom became a partner at the NYC firm Fish & Neave, and I a partner at the Miami firm Steel Hector & Davis. Tom was a skinny guy with a wispy moustache, rapier wit, bow-legged gait, and a long south Texas drawl that always seemed bigger than he was. Definitely not the stock image of a silk stocking Manhattan lawyer. I saw some of his opponents recoil in shock when they first met Tom and he began to speak. When Tom had a case that fell before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, and my own trial schedule precluded my help, I linked him up with my partner Patricia Seitz, General Seitz' daughter, now a federal judge. They kicked ass. Tom and I retired at about the same time. We both contracted cancer. I won my fight, but Tom died in his. Adios mi hermano Tom--one damn good tanker, trial lawyer, and one fine man. The world is duller without you. Gerry Gibson.

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