BRISTOL — As a circuit judge serving mainly in the district court at Franklin for the past 12 and a half years, Edward M. “Ned” Gordon has seen generations of people pass through his courtroom.
“The thing you see as a judge,” he said, “is that most people who appear before you are good people who maybe made some bad decisions.”
In criminal cases, he said, “What strikes you most is that they generally fall into one of three categories: substance abuse, mental illness, and lack of education. You do your best to set them on the right course to resolve their issues, but how effective that is can be very frustrating.”
Now, having reached the mandatory retirement age of 70, Gordon says he is glad to have been given the opportunity to serve on the bench, and probably would have continued as a judge if he could have done so.
“I still have a lot of energy,” he said, “and I don’t think my abilities have depreciated that much.”
Yet, he said, he knew going into the job what the “rules of the game” were, so he knew he’d be retiring from the bench on June 13.
He has retired before — he took early retirement from New England Telephone after working there for 15 years — but it has never meant not working, and Gordon intends to stay busy now.
“I want to be productive, to contribute, and to be relevant, and not just go away,” he said.
His plans are twofold: He has filed for one of the two seats for state representative from Grafton County District 9 (Alexandria, Ashland, Bridgewater, Bristol, and Grafton); and he plans to practice law with his daughter, Dorcas, under a newly formed business, Newfound Law PLLC.
Values and Education
Gordon’s plans to continue working fit both his character and his history. He began working at the age of 14 as a farm laborer, taking jobs at the Walker Farm and Donald Hutchins’ dairy farm in South Alexandria, as well as at the Robie farm in Bristol.
“South Alexandria was a great place to grow up,” he said. “Not to credit Hillary Clinton, but it does take a village, and Alexandria was a very supportive community. I learned a lot in terms of values working on the farm.”
He gives credit to his teachers and other people at Newfound Memorial High School in Bristol for taking an interest in him and encouraging him to pursue post-secondary education.
“I came to the realization that, coming from my circumstances, where my parents were not affluent, we didn’t have a family business, and with no connection to people in power, my only ticket was education,” he said. “My teachers encourage me to go to school, and through education and investing in myself, I was able to have a successful career.”
Family values supported him. His mother, Dorothy Gordon, “always said to work hard, go more than halfway, do more than your share, and be honest — take responsibility for everything you do (and sometimes for things you didn’t do). Always have some goal, or something you want to obtain.”
He worked his way through college at the University of New Hampshire. During his first summer after high school, he worked at the First National grocery store in Bristol, and manager Mark Cramton gave him a recommendation to secure a job at the First National in Dover while at college. He also worked at a shoe factory while attending UNH.
Between his sophomore and junior years, he got married (he and his wife, Gayle, will celebrate their 50th anniversary in September). After earning his bachelor’s degree, he found difficulty finding work, so he attended graduate school. While there, a friend arranged an interview with New England Telephone, and he got a job in sales. When the telephone company faced divestiture, he was among the seven percent of employees selected to go with the parent company, AT&T, giving him a total of 15 years in the business. He worked as an industry manager, selling switching systems to large businesses.
The job meant a daily commute from Bristol to Boston, but Gordon said, “It was great to live in Bristol with the quality of life here, and have a Boston income.” However, the company kept urging him to relocate to Atlanta, Denver, Georgia, California, or to the headquarters in New Jersey. It became clear that, if he wanted to advance in the company, he would have to relocate, but he and Gayle wanted to stay here.
AT&T had paid for him to obtain a master’s degree in business administration through night courses at Boston College, and he decided to take night courses at Suffolk University in order to obtain a law degree. When AT&T offered him an early retirement incentive, he accepted and transferred to Franklin Pierce College to finish law school.
He had an opportunity for an internship with Hugh Bownes in the federal circuit court, which led to a clerkship with New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice David Brock. He then went to work with Wescott, Millham & Dyer in Laconia, which he described as a wonderful place to work.
“Peter Millham and Rod Dyer were great mentors,” he said. “They believed it’s not all about making money. When you’re done being a lawyer, people aren’t going to remember you for how much you made or what you took from the community, but what you’ve contributed to the community. Virtually all the lawyers in that firm have community involvement.”
Political Life
While working at the law firm in 1992, Gordon first ran for public office as a member of the New Hampshire House and, two years later, he ran for the Senate, where he was to serve four terms.
“What I enjoy most is feeling I’ve helped people,” Gordon said, “making an effort to improve their lives. I did that in the Senate, and also in the courtroom. There’s satisfaction in doing that.”
After four terms in the Senate, Gordon did not seek another term.
“I would have liked to have stayed,” he said; “I felt I might have further political opportunities, but by the time I was in my mid-50s, I realized I needed to secure my retirement. I needed to focus on my law practice.”
That also was the period that the Republican Party began moving toward the right. Gordon is what he terms a “traditional Republican” — fiscally conservative but more middle of the road on social issues.
“I’m not much different from my father and grandfather, who were Republicans,” he said. “They wouldn’t recognize the Republican Party today.”
By appealing to the middle, Gordon said, “I don’t know if I’d have been successful politically in seeking higher office. I had strong support in my district when I left.”
Shortly after he left the senate and began refocusing on the law work, he had an opportunity to serve as a circuit court judge, and Democratic Governor John Lynch approved the nomination.
“It was his first judicial appointment, and, to his credit, although I was a Republican and he was a Democrat, he supported me,” Gordon said. “I know he took some heat over that.”
The Judge
As a circuit judge, Gordon would serve at courtrooms around the state, although he was primarily assigned to Franklin, a city he was familiar with because his father, Arthur Gordon, had worked at the J.P. Stevens Mill until it closed.
He said people would be surprised to hear how much activity there is in court. Parenting cases used to be heard only in Concord, but now they’re heard in the circuit courts.
Gordon was one of 10 circuit judges to volunteer to serve as family court judges, and he said those cases can be the most difficult.
On days he was not presiding over the Franklin court, he would be assigned to other courtrooms, sometimes sitting in Berlin one day and Nashua the next.
“I’ve enjoyed the Franklin community,” he said. “They’re good people. Over the last 12 years, I’ve gotten to know both the community leaders and the underbelly, those who would be using the courts.”
The socio-economic difficulties have a lot to do with who ends up in court, he said. Most people are looking ahead to long-term goals they want to achieve, he said, “but people who suffer from poverty are thinking only in terms of what’s going to happen next.”
That is where he tried to offer help and emphasize the value of education.
The Future
Retirement offers a chance to return to the political life, and he has filed for one of the District 9 seats currently held by Vincent Paul Migliore of Bridgewater and Robert Hull of Grafton.
His daughter, Dorcas, had followed him into the law firm now known as the Wescott Law Firm in Laconia, also doing business out of her own office in Bristol. Last November, she filed the trade name of Newfound Law and, on July 1, she will be leaving Wescott to practice in her own law firm — and her father will be joining her.
“She cares about the town just like me,” he said.