The Rochester I Know; 412; Edward Harris

I. Mean. If it can be said that a talent can be inherited then as the product of two generations of Rochester attorneys it's no wonder that he was to set his sights on the low. With the exception of a tempting offer to join IBM he fulfilled his goal in 1938 when he attained his law degree from Cornell. He went to New York to fine tune his last kills. While there he met a young lady from Switzerland who was later to become his wife. During World War

2 his career was put on hold when the Navy made him an executive officer of a destroyer escort following the war. He returned to Rochester and carried on his family's long tradition of service to the law. Today Bill Piers talks with Edward Harris about the Rochester he knows. Bill Pierce Welcome to the Rochester I know Ed Harris is our guest today and Ed Harris the third Ed Harris as far as I've been able to make out in the Harris beach and Wilcox for Medicare says now retired retired senior partner. Correct. The Harris beach and Wilcox one of the largest firms in these parts. Maybe statewide I'm not sure. Well Roger it's a firm of about 150 lawyers now. If you learn how to start head gets started with you know what your great grandfather my grandfather grandfather who came over a rooms in a ladder and he was working hard in his garden one day and a man named Henry Ives was watching him through the window. But this is right here in Rochester in Rochester

and grandpa was working ferociously in the garden. And I've said that young man is going to make his mark someday. I wonder if you would like to come into my office and study law which he did. Became a partner and I was an heiress and then Harris My grandpa they were joined by my uncle Albert and then my father and my me and my nephew Peter. So three Ed Harris is now in those days he didn't apparently didn't go to law school what year is this. That was around fifty fifty six was the founder of the firm. And when I went in to study with I was running 53 and he had no legal training up to that point no no you you walk into a law office and what you do what you're told and you become a lawyer you know he was a grammar school graduate and so the firm became IV's and and herons. Yeah now I use isn't the name I use is no longer connected to the firm what what happened dives.

Who hires went to his reward and bit by bit over the years the firm to change his name were gone all the way from the hives and Harris to Harris Beach PD Wilcox Dale and Linda it's all like I know it was the high point of the firm as well as length of name is what distinguished Navy maybe we'll get those now is Harris beach Wilcox but it's as you say Keating in little ways I'm sure a lot of folks here say oh my god it's not Senator Keating and and Sol in a way it's for Hazaras Xerox fame so we'll get to those in a minute now. How do. Where were you born were you born and in the city or in Iraq where our church and General Hospital and where did you live. 219 called the road right here and right here right in the city 219 Culver near Cobbs Hill. Oh not too far. Near the right you can now see the canal boats going by and why it was quite different then. Now that's where the canal boats were where 490 Expressway is now the

wide water you know where the lake right we call a lake right here right now is on the shadow of Cobbs Hill. They're like well what you do as a kid in that neighborhood then. Nothing very exceptional. We played around with lived down the street and it was a quiet time and not much private in the street and no crime and no supervision speak of the one word you would happen to you if you were running all by yourself and your velocipede or whatnot. Yeah. Now Culver there's almost the city line was it was that country no country really started after Clover Street. When I was seven years old what was Cobbs hill like then much of it wasn't built up as much as the heart of the heights right next door was the reservoir there was always there. So grow up trolley cars were and yes and you'll Rochester and Eastern which went all the way from Rochester to Syracuse

went through there. What right down CULVER. You know all across our now would you go to school at Calvert School originally which was the forerunner of Columbia. It was on a cold road and was operated by Ole Joey called us who for the school was named after dad started a private school and who was he. Oh he was just a man who is interested in education and. He just started school on his own now called Call bus or call for help. He started what a private school called it called and then it became what Allan de Auriol MBA Allendale and I was out on the bridge with me. Then you went to Allendale at the time or Columbia How did how did that work out. Before I went to school I went to Columbia School was a school for girls who first grade.

And the school was then Ireland's Goodman street and Goodman Street near Park Avenue. Right and remember oh yeah. Where the Museum of Science that's right is now and then later Columbia merged with Alan Dale I became Elendil Columbia. How did you get interested in the law. Really it was because of the family influences the opening to the show said I think really was I was subjected to a lot of influence that direction going down here always to my father and you know I've been working there and also I like to debate as a kid when I was a biddings are sorry and both prep school and college and and I used to like to talk a lot not as much now you want to talk about. It sounds to me like you like to talk a lot now. Ed Ed Harris you're you're growing up on culver then you move to Clover Street. You go away to school to wear to St. Paul's School in Concord New Hampshire

so it's a prep school you know to prepare you for what for what the law overall college college going to Princeton after samples and then the Cornell Law School and now you commit you come back to the firm after Cornell law you know I went to work in New York. I wanted to show that I didn't need to have family you know. Okay yeah yeah. Kids we haven't changed a bit and I got a job at one of Wall Street playing marbles or the big boys which is very exciting but it really wasn't for me. When I came back to practice with my father in Rochester after why did he invite you back or did you call one day and say well maybe I want to come home now. No he let me know it would be very welcome welcome back. How big was the firm then. About twenty people well and now it's one hundred fifteen hundred thirty right now this is just this is about 19 What year is this year 1930 you know thousand nine hundred thirty nine. You're back in Rochester. Paris beach where is the firm that now and then where is the building

currently in the granite building in Rochester and then days it was South five South Street building which was erected in 1873 cost $50000 to build. We tore it down in 1973 it cost $50000 a day. Things that she shades a little bit. You're back practicing in thirty nine what kind of practice did you have in thirty nine there. Well the firm was principally engaged in real estate and banking work and corporate work and now the boys really cover the waterfront. Everything from criminal law to environmental law you know is there anything you don't do it or speech. Yes we don't do maritime law. Recently we did a new patent patent attorneys in the room and now one thousand thirty nine. You're you're there you're married did you have a family yet in 1940 a year later how did that come about.

Well practicing law in New York and I was invited to have dinner at the apartment of a friend of mine at Kellogg. He said there was a young Swiss girl traveling with her father business and he thought we ought to meet. So we're all set to go. Tuesday night called up said they're not coming so late next Tuesday same thing next Tuesday not coming. I'm going to think this is a phony. The suspense is building. So I was prepared the third time the dinner was supposed to be. I had a little card put up under the girl's name was Jacklyn. But in the car jack and I know you're a fake hundred plate dinner and then after I talked to her for a few minutes I discovered you could not. So how to retrieve that card without her discovery. I did that yeah you know that it was a lot ahead. I've found out about this when some doubt me because I told her she's not going to be revealed. Good now.

So you're mad and what you married there or she promised to come back to this country in the spring when she didn't. I do of course in a cable to her saying I'm coming over for a visit. Now this is one thousand forty one thousand forty. So it was 1993 you know in 1939. I sent this cable and her very conservative so his family said what kind of a chap is this sending a cable inviting themselves to visit. Well my wife to BS me and she said Easy English when you get it. So so they gave me a chart and I took it. And I mean I see you for Europe and August 1930 you know saying that every peace in our time of course the Germans marched into Poland the last day of August the first time where were you then there'd be a startling nose or where we were you.

We ready for it we're ready for that. I wasn't ready I thought I was a maid or decided oh I've been well worn five years ago by a correspondent for The New York Times that war would start in Europe in five years on the first day of September. Really. He told me it would. This is what you were working in New York City you write your college 1934. I was rushing somebody was clairvoyant. He was that guy. Now you're in Switzerland 1940. You don't have a wife yet. What what happens. Well you know I said. I had to go back to back home I let my family know that I wanted to go up and watch the war and they didn't like that idea. It's in a cable saying all three glad when you're home. I usually cut the tip for my family I would sell it so I guess I can see the war. You mean you are you're going to go to Poland or go to the front.

It's a funny idea but I was very proud so I guess I would be a great fun. So I went back back to the states and my wife to be. If you were visit spring and we noticed her Gaven over here we were married over here because we were planning to go back to be married and switch on. But Italy had just come into the war and so we could go through long lines to get married. Remarry here. It was a real international courtship going on. All right you're back in Rochester. You're married you're start to practice law again with your new wife and what's the next event. When I signed up for the Navy before the war started with the word started it was 41 or you wanna. So I went to the Navy and. Went to naval training school and I became the captain of a sub. So where you know where was where was the training school and Chicago Northwestern

University you're commissioned and then put in charge of a sub chaser. They were called 90 day wonders. They made naval officers out of the clouds and through the 90 days supposedly and put it to the ship. Yeah I mean there's some terrible things happen but we're in charge of a ship you know where in the Atlantic Pacific and you know that and then Holland you had a tour what Throughout the war. I was there for a couple years then I want to move inland and operated on a destroyer escort in the Pacific. I got as far as you know we talk when war was over and the war's over you're back in Rochester. You know this is the Rochester I know so we got to get back there I try to talk a little bit about it. Did you go back to work at the firm right away is that it and your dad is still there at the time. Yes he died about a year. You had to go back and know what you know now what is your specialty when you come back to work.

Well I practice principally in corporate law in banking and some domestic relations but not very much. I always found that pretty tough work. And I think it still is now. It's 1946 or 47 you're out of the service and you're back here in Russia. What is the city like in those days your recollection of what the pace was like and where the people were who were the mayor and what stood out in the city then fly to the suburbs apparently hadn't begun yet. You know the the chief difference I would say between Would Rochester was right in 1940 640 Serbs and what is right now is the quantity of everything. Today we've got almost too much of everything except money. In those days you didn't have too much traffic. You didn't have too much bad news you know too much crime. Yeah a lot of things have too much of it

and you can assimilate things better because life was full of a lot of their brain. Today we have a series of crises in Rwanda or Korea or and. Near East and human you're it almost a crises. So we fail to see some of the really important crazies which are taking place where right under our nose we have a speaker in there right around very serious trouble. What do you think is a most serious crisis we face here now and in terms of well you know our community from I don't know. I'm speaking way out of my field but I believe one of the most serious crises will prove to be a medical crisis that I always used to say that we talked about the good old days there was nothing good about the days before you didn't have and so on. But now the bacteria are starting with us and for example this trip to Congress is

resistent through with patients to every known drug except one one by one bacteria outsmarted already batiks and we are not spending sufficient amount of money on research. Keep up the march of the bacteria and there's a real crisis. It's an interesting observation of this health bill that we're trying to get through with it and whether or not that's going to alleviate any of the things you're talking about. I'm not sure they rate you. Let's go back for a minute because we the health crisis I think is going to be another entire program here if you're in a firm and you mention earlier that Senator Ken Keating was in your focus and you tell us a little bit about him and would come later we're again going to school together one can was raising a firm with a Tom Remington and he broke off in that firm after firm merge two hours and he became very

active and extremely successful trial lawyer an appellate lawyer one of the most successful lawyers anywhere around. And then he decided to go into Congress and I almost did a minute I thought it was a rather grim thing but Ken had very severe asthma and. He said I just don't know if I can continue with my campaign. His first campaign for Congress. I still can't I got just the thing for you if you take these pills or call Amman often in your ear as I say give me a bill. Sure well those who took the pills and they resulted in stopping his heart rush to mark the hospital. I don't inject adrenaline directly into his heart his heart going. I didn't know all that was done. Later when he said you know so you killed me I said why don't I just tell you I did. So you've been interested in medicine ever said Oh

yeah. Let's It would now this was what early 50s something when you became a famous senator. Federal building here was also general generally armies and he was ambassador to India is that Israel you know senator and then the court of appeal you know and then was 14 years of age as mother said to him. Someday you're going to be president of the United States and came pretty close. You graduate of the University of Rochester the age of 14. Amazing. Now he was in office when during the before the Cuban missile crisis was the US and he was the one who blew the whistle on the Cubans and succeeded in convincing the president that there was a big build up of missiles in Cuba and you better do something about it. Nobody believed him at first but finally he proved to be correct. Now how did he how did he have inside information.

It was young and special to me how I worked there and there is no way he got what he knew and was very careful about facts when he said something. Well sure it was correct. He and I talked to him at that time when he was a general of the Army and he said you know I could never go back to the law. He said to the new shot of the law is just too much now because as a general they asked me should I order a hundred fifty thousand of these you know are you. Sure of that. So I say hundred seventy five thousand dollars. General Evers round up or round and the other well-known person and I think it was for many of us I don't know but the present generation in your firm was Solander Whitson. Tell us a little bit about him and when you call it a firm and what he saw and I were and in the same class in law school got to be pretty good friends and and we agreed that

someday we practiced law together. So later on that tree had been with the Sutherland and sewing firm for a while. I persuaded him to come over and join us and he practiced with us for a few years and then he became where we were attorneys for Xerox. So I became chairman of the board of Xerox and under Joe Wilson. And then he went to could their brothers in Washington and which is the international law firm after having become a bastard to the Organization of American States. And so in a way it's still with us and what I'm doing now. So I'll just retired recently from good air brothers and he's written a book which they tell me is excellent I haven't read it yet. It's about the legal profession it's called the book trade profession. That is going to be interesting to watch that like that. Well he's a well-known name locally so I'm sure we're going to be looking for the Big Three tell me my name in the book somewhere or

I don't care. You never know how you're going to come you know. You mention Joe Wilson along the way now where what was your relationship with Joe Wilson. Well razor as far as I understand was that I was an enormous admirer of Joe. He was my cousin rather remote cousin is his grandmother and my grandmother were sisters but you know it's and I really revere his memory. Remarkable guy. Now why now why we feel Wilson so revered everyone talks so highly Joe Wilson I'm sure there's a whole generation has come along. Never heard of them or never met him or didn't know anything about him. Oh he was all very human. You know the fact that he was enormously successful and never went to his head in the slightest. He was interested in every individual became really interested that was the thing which is do people do it. The human equation was of primary importance. There's no doubt he was the driving force for getting a helo into that

into the Xerox empire to desert or develop the planet and in fact Joe put in our office the first experimental Xerox machine and I'm 14 and I'm 14 was that time was experimental and going to crater which you rocked around your hands and I got my hands kind of dirty even the. Graphite and stuff. So Joe's Ed do you think the Xerox machine is my machine ever going to be using all of its necessary jewel I can see it now I got to the dime regimes there before what do you think of the idea to begin with I don't much like I was not terrible. It went well. Ed Harris now you retired senior partner from Harris beach Wilcox. You've been retired now for a few years now you're obviously still active and I get out of my office to watch my secretary. It's about our duty but now how are you spending your time now

and and and. Well I'm assisting my wife and her horse breeding program we've been bringing horses for 40 years and that keeps. Her very busy I mean some of the breeding horses for what purpose for jumping event so-called eventing horse trials mind training jumping cross-country we're on that full time where you are you know you want to keep your finger and then every Thursday we get up about six o'clock go to feed the horses managers day off and we ran in that way. My wife goes out four days a week. Now you've seen Rochester from early in the century to today and you've seen the growth of the city or maybe the diminution of the city you've seen the growth of the suburbs but he would hear long term expectations for for this town for this county for this area. Well I subscribed to a few real estate publications and I believe that the consensus is correct. And that is that.

This would be a flight from the suburbs out into the country. Previously Of course it was a flight to the suburbs from the city. But with the increasing. The crime problem and congestion and all that goes with it people want more space. And I think the suburbs when I was started to be abandoned favorite areas maybe 30 or 40 miles from the city center. If you have more reading room I believe that's it. Are you optimistic at all about any any part of our future. I don't mean was the best of it for sure. I think that I'm a great believer in cycles and what goes around comes around and things may seem very bad to the bone. There's a slow turning of the wheel and rise we may be in a downturn now there is an upswing coming. If you just hold on and wait for it Harrison.

Great having you here today. Our guest today retired senior partner hair speech and Wilcox I'm Bill Pierce. This is the Rochester I know. See you next time. So I'm for now. Who. Are you.

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