Alex Humphrey

[carlie]

I just came across this article on a past member of Hadit.com.

I don't remember reading this article before and wanted to share it

with everyone here.

Alex was one of the best assets readily available to help VBA claimants.

I miss him.

VETERANS CONSORTIUM PRO - BONO PROGRAM

2007 ANNUAL REPORT

http://www.vetsprobono.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/2007-annual-report.pdf

"Alex Humphrey -

The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program, veterans law , and , most of all , veterans lost an advocate and friend of

limitless dedication and determination early in 2008 with the passing of Alex Humphrey following a long battle with myotonic muscular dystrophy.

Alex was an advocate about whom those who knew and worked with him spoke in superlatives that never seemed adequate.

He first appeared on the scene of veterans law in 1996 as a volunteer for Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA). A Special Forces veteran and Gold Star winner in Vietnam, an All-America swimmer as a Yale undergraduate and a graduate of Harvard Law, he had worked for the Department of Justice and as a lobbyist and senior counsel for GE American Communications. When he became ill with muscular dystrophy, he retired from GE and began the advocacy for veterans that would occupy him for his remaining years.

His Special Forces training included cross-training in emergency medical procedures, which gave him a sound background in trauma medicine and diseases indigenous to Southeast Asia, which served him well in representing Vietnam veterans seeking benefits. Although Alex started with VVA, he came to the Consortium during a period of very heavy caseload. The memoranda he w rote ere models of precision and research as he acquired an encyclopedic knowledge of the law and never hesitated to share his insight and skills.

When he returned to VVA and the Appeals Office at the Board, he mentored young attorneys who came to work there as well as VVA service officers and private counsel all over the country.

With an enviable know ledge of case, regulatory, and statutory law, Alex worked tirelessly with veterans and their families to obtain and craft evidence into as strong a case as possible. He was straight forward in assessing the cases, usually taking the most complex issues himself.

Under Alex's leadership, VVA's success rate at the Board was consistently higher than any other veterans service organization.

A "fixture" at the Board, he knew everyone and never hesitated to share his views or seek to satisfy his curiosity, as one judge on the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims found out during a ride though a Denver snow storm, during which Alex ignored the storm and quizzed the judge about the details of processing and deciding cases in his chambers. Despite, and perhaps in defiance of, his illness he continued to come to the office, represent veterans, and unflaggingly persevere in obtaining for them the benefits and compensation they were due.

He leaves behind his beloved wife of 39 years, Margot Smiley Humphrey, and the light of his life, daughter Katherine Robb Humphrey. He will be missed."

[Pete53]

Alex was a good friend to Hadit and I miss him. When an old Bulletin Board changed he made the trip over to Hadit along with Berta and Gwen Widner. He could be very blunt but his advice was spot on and to me offered hope and more important support from someone who knew the VA inside and out.

He was maybe the best of the best as far as an advocate goes in my opinion. Thanks for posting this article/