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Memorial for Robert Sanders set for Thursday
When I was an associate attorney at Moot & Sprague in the 1980s, I urgently asked a partner where to obtain an obscure legal form, and was told: "Just run over to Sanders - he's got every kind of legal form there is."
Stacked and sorted from floor to ceiling at his shop, there seemed to be a legal form within reach for every action or proceeding. If Sanders didn't have whatever form was needed, he would offer to design and print one up.
For more than 40 years, his customers obtained every paper provision imaginable, as well as the benefit of Sanders' wry sense of humor and pithy philosophy.
My mission accomplished, I returned to Moot & Sprague with the proper forms in hand - and Mr. Sanders' eloquent recitation of Rudyard Kipling's "If" in my head.
With Sanders' passing, what Tom Brokaw called the "Greatest Generation" lost a WWII naval aviator who served in the South Pacific, engaging air and ground targets when America took the offensive. Away from his shop, he enjoyed the companionship of family and friends, golfing, dancing and supporting youth athletics. During the 1970s, he coached wrestling in the City of Tonawanda.
Sanders, born Dec. 12, 1922, is survived by his wife, Mildred; two sons, Robert and Craig; and daughter Sharon.
A memorial gathering will be held this Thursday, Aug. 20, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Marotto's & Du Bois Restaurant, 62 Niagara St., Buffalo.
Sanders and his shop will be missed by Buffalo's legal community. Finding legal forms online will never allow us the opportunity to be enriched with the wisdom of Rudyard Kipling.
Glenn Murray is a Buffalo criminal-defense lawyer focusing on DWI defense. He can be reached at gemesq@mac.com.
More on the man behind the counter
Sanders started an office-supply and stationery business more than 40 years ago, incorporating the business as Sanders Legal Publishing in 1981.
"He enjoyed witty and lively debates on the madness of life with his customers," his colleagues in the business wrote in a tribute. "A craftsman devoted to his business, he continued to work until illness prevented him from going into work."
"He wrote the copy for all those forms that the Bar Association ended up adopting," said Mike Barry, who has acted as general manager of Sanders Legal Publishing in recent months, as Sanders, who suffered from heart disease, took ill.
"He was a brilliant guy."
- Annie Deck-Miller