Heartfelt goodbye to Wayne Hartwell

It was about fifty years ago when Wayne Hartwell began at the Library as a part-time law student.  He died recently as one of the Library’s Reference Attorneys, not only beloved and admired by staff but also respected and appreciated by patrons who relied on his legal-research guidance.

Soon after Wayne started at the Library in the early 1970s, he impressed the Librarian, Edgar Bellefontaine, as someone with a keen legal mind who wrote concisely and with clarity—skills that Bellefontaine especially needed to assist him in his capacity as the Reporter to compose the Massachusetts Rules of Criminal Procedure.

Although Wayne’s role was not official, it was common knowledge that he was Bellefontaine’s “right hand man,” playing a key role to write and revise successive drafts of the rules to meet the exacting standards of the Oversight Committee. Although Wayne’s role is largely unheralded, his drafting skills significantly contributed to the adoption of the Rules in 1979.

Wayne’s first tour of duty at the Library lasted about ten years, mostly helping Edgar Bellefontaine with his myriad scholarly projects of the type described above.  He was a well-liked member of the staff, known for his quick and kind wit, as well as his willingness to help whenever asked … and sometimes when desperately needed. He achieved “hero” status when, in the lunchroom, he saved the life of a choking colleague with the Heimlich Maneuver.  

Wayne was a Celtics and Patriots fan, and a member of the “Social Law Citations” when, decades ago, the Library fielded a softball team that played the administrative staffs of large Boston law firms.

Perhaps his greatest good fortune at Social Law was when he met his future wife, Judy Bacon (maiden name), who fortuitously did a part-time stint at the Library.

At some point in the 1980s, Wayne left the Library and went into private practice.

He returned to the Library in the late 1990s as Reference Attorney, assisting patrons from every segment of the Massachusetts bench and bar find answers to every conceivable type of legal problem.  Quietly and unselfishly helping others research the law were skills that played to Wayne’s considerable strengths.

 “He was a wonderful person,” one of the younger staff members wrote on learning of his death, “a great colleague, witty and made me laugh.”

Wayne Hartwell’s decades of friendship and service will be fondly remembered by countless members of the Social Law Library family, staff and patrons alike.