LAWLOR, RICHARD ALBAN (1852-1917)

LAWLOR, RICHARD ALBAN, lawyer, revenue officer, and judge of probate; b. Douglastown, 11 Jul 1852, s/o John Lawlor and Sarah Landy; brother of James Rogers Lawlor; m. 1879, Elizabeth Griffin, d/o James T. Griffin and Ann Bryson; d. Chatham, 23 Oct 1917.

Richard A. Lawlor joined the 73rd Battalion of militia in the early 1870s when Lieut. Col. Daniel Ferguson was its commanding officer and was trained under Capt. Alexander S. Templeton. At this time he was associated with Robert R. Call in the steam ferry business. He later studied law with Michael Adams and gained admission to the bar in 1878. During the next five years he was Adams's law partner. For a short time, Adams & Lawlor had an office in Bathurst, and they opened one in Chatham in the spring of 1883. Soon afterwards, Lawlor discontinued the practice of law to become collector of inland revenue, as successor to his father-in-law, James T. Griffin. When he was superannuated in 1897 and the position of collector abolished, he practiced law again and became county judge of probate.

Lawlor was a salmon angler of note and took an interest in the organization and management of team sports. In 1889 he was a founder and the first president of the Chatham Baseball Club, which fielded the Chatham Acmes. He was president of the Chatham Hockey Club in 1903 and of the newly-formed Chatham Quoiting Club in 1904.

With Robert R. Call and six others, Lawlor was an incorporator in 1882 of the World Publishing Co. In 1898 he was appointed to the Chatham School Board. He was a founding director of the Miramichi Exhibition Association in 1902 and served as president from 1913 to 1915. In 1910 he was appointed to the first board of governors of St Thomas College. In 1913 he was secretary-treasurer of the Lumbermen and Limit Holders Association of New Brunswick, of which John P. Burchill was president. Throughout the years, he was an active member of the Knights of Columbus.

The Chatham World described Lawlor as "a genial gentleman, a public spirited citizen, and an able lawyer," whose unrealized life's ambition was "a seat on the Supreme Court bench." He and his wife, Elizabeth Griffin, had two daughters, one of whom was Rev. Sister St Mary Alban of the Congregation of Notre Dame.