2007 Winter, Pg. 10. Reminiscences of My Friend, David A. Brock.

• Author: By Hon. Harold W. Perkins

New Hampshire Bar Journal

2007.

2007 Winter, Pg. 10.

Reminiscences of My Friend, David A. Brock

New Hampshire BarJournalWinter 2007, Volume 47, No. 4Judicial LegaciesReminiscences of My Friend, David A. BrockThis article, published in Vol. 151 of the New Hampshire Reports, is reprinted with permission.By Hon. Harold W. PerkinsChief Justice David Brock retired on December 31, 2003 after serving on the bench for 27 years. When the Supreme Court invited me to write one of the two dedications to the Chief to be published in [Vol. 151 of the New Hampshire Reports], I was both awed and humbled. I was also proud and pleased to be given this opportunity. Retired Justice William Batchelder was invited to write the other dedication and he will primarily address Dave Brock as a colleague and a jurist. This dedication will focus on Dave Brock, the man and my friend.

Dave Brock was born in Stoneham, Massachusetts; his family moved shortly thereafter to New Hampshire. He is a hometown guy from New Hampshire, attending high school at Central in Manchester and later at the Holderness School. From there he went on to study at Dartmouth College, where he was a goalie for the Dartmouth ice hockey team. (This love of hockey stayed with Dave even after his appointment to the bench. He could be found on Sunday mornings at St. Paul's School playing pick-up hockey.) From 1955 to 1958 he was a member of the N.R.O.T.C program. After graduating from Dartmouth, Dave was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps and went on to become a platoon commander and promoted to captain. He was honorably discharged from the Corps in 1960.

Dave graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1963 and was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar the same year. He began his legal career at Devine, Millimet, McDonough, Stahl & Branch where he worked for three years as a general practitioner with a focus on civil defense work, although he took on many criminal cases as well. In 1969, he was appointed by then-President Nixon as the United States Attorney for New Hampshire. He left this position in 1972 to run for the United States Senate. Later in 1972 he joined a small law firm in Concord, which became Perkins, Douglas and Brock. As a practicing attorney, Dave was characterized by his ethical conduct toward his clients, his...