February was a really awful month

Most of this month was spent obsessing about Donald Trump or going to funerals.

I am not going to even discussed his orangeness.  He takes up enough of my time.

Two men that I worked with for many years died over the course of two weeks–Charlie Hobbs and Bobo Dean.

I was just getting out of law school with not a job prospect in sight.  My boss at the time, a judge at the local D.C. Court of Appeals, got a call from Charlie asking if he had any good law clerks and the judge recommended me.  I had never heard of Indian law. But I went to the interview to find out what it was about.  He hired me to work on a very big Indian case against the federal government concerning mismanagement of timber owned by Indians in Washington state.  To say our relationship was complicated is not saying enough.  We fought.  A lot.  I was a very volatile and opinionated person.  Charlie valued the opinion but not the volatility.  We produced great work.  Kind of like band members who fight with each other all the time but make great music together because of it.

Charlie was a guy who was willing to hire me when no one else would and I can never thank him enough for that.  So it was very difficult to watch him decline over the years.  Near the end, Matt and I visited him in the hospital several times, just going in to talk with him and cheer him up.  We can be very entertaining.  But he finally succumbed.  I’ll miss you Charlie.  You taught me a lot and the next time I write a sentence that reads, “Not so!” or the next time I refer to “jub jub” I’ll think of you.

As for Bobo, he was the greatest conversationalist in the universe.  I could talk to him all day long.  He was infinitely interesting.  I did not work with him regularly since I was usually working on litigation and he did other things.  But he was a vivid man with a tenacity that I have never experienced since.  He changed Indian law for the better and I hope that people appreciate that.