Introducing CBA President Richard S. Gast, 0717 COBJ, Vol. 46 No. 7 Pg. 4
| Author | JESSICA A. VOLZ, J. |
PRESIDENT’S PROFILE
JESSICA A. VOLZ, J.
“I
don’t know of a profession that’s quite so giving
of its time as the legal profession” is the unequivocal
view of incoming CBA I President Richard Gast. With his
easygoing nature and penchant for casual sophistication, Dick
(as he prefers to be called) exudes a breed of charismatic
nonchalance that can be traced back to the Wild West. For
those who are well-versed in Colorado legal history, the name
“Gast” will undoubtedly ring a bell: Dicks
great-grandfather Charles E. Gast (1848-1908) served as the
second president of the CBA from 1898 to 1899.[1] He began
practicing law in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1870 and in
1873, rose to the call to “go west young man,”
ultimately settling in Pueblo. There, he practiced with such
luminaries as Henry Thatcher, who served as the first chief
justice of the Colorado Supreme Court when Colorado became
our nation’s 38th state.
II of The History of Colorado (1913) provides what Dick describes as “one of the most telling descriptions” of his great-grandfather:
As a lawyer he ranked with the ablest; as a citizen he was
honorable, prompt and true to every engagement; as a man he
held the honor and esteem of all classes of people and
political proclivities; as a husband and father he was a
model worthy of all imitation, unassuming in his manner,
sincere in his friendships, steadfast and unswerving in his
loyalty to the right.
“You’ve got to love the vernacular of the day,” confesses Dick, who is no stranger to crafting language for poetically tangible results. More than the fluff of ephemeral eloquence, this verbal portrait of Charles Gast projects the paragon of excellence that subsequent generations of the Gast family have aspired to embrace. Dick’s grandfather Robert S. Gast (1879–1948) was also an accomplished lawyer. He trekked east to attend Yale University and Columbia Law School, after which he quickly returned to his hometown of Pueblo to practice law. Following in his father’s footsteps, Robert went on to become president of the CBA in 1923, during the height of Prohibition. Robert’s son—Dick’s father—adopted a similar...
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