I learned this morning of the death, on 7 January 2010, of one of the last of a generation of lawyers whose careers spanned the period from before the Second World War into this century.
Here is the announcement in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
SCHREINER CYRUS BRYSON, ESQ.
Was born May 21, 1913 in the Schreiner family home on Bower Hill Road in Mt. Lebanon and died January 7, 2010 at Friendship Village, Upper St. Clair. Schreiner grew up with Mt. Lebanon Township (established 1912), since his father, Samuel A. Schreiner, was the founding solicitor of both Mt. Lebanon Township and Mt. Lebanon Public School District. Throughout his life, he enjoyed sharing his knowledge of family and local history with the community. Bryson graduated with the first class of Mt. Lebanon High School in 1931, from Princeton University in 1935, and from the University of Pittsburgh Law School in 1938 with his L.L.B. degree. Admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1940, he practiced law locally until 2004. …[family details omitted] … A devoted member of Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian Church since 1924, he served as an elder and member of several local and national committees of the denomination, including the General Council. He also served with joyful diligence on boards of the Mt. Lebanon Public Library, the South Hills YMCA, Mt. Lebanon Federal Savings and Loan, St. Clair Cemetery, and the Light of Life Rescue Mission–the latter for over 40 years. Since 1984, he resided at Friendship Village of the South Hills in Upper St. Clair, a retirement community that he helped launch and joined as a “pioneer resident” when the facility opened… [memorial service details omitted] … Memorial gifts may be given to Mt. Lebanon U.P. Church or Light of Life Ministries.
I knew C. Bryson Schreiner as a family friend, a colleague, and as his client.
When I first was admitted to practice in Pennsylvania in 1973, Bryson formally moved my admission before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. I was associated with him in Pittsburgh from 1973 through December 1974, when we parted on friendly terms so that I could gain more experience as a trial lawyer. From him, I learned (but never mastered at his level) an intense attention to detail that was somewhat contrary to my natural preference. I also admired (but likewise never equaled) his boundless intellectual and physical energy.
The son of a lawyer himself, Bryson was also our family attorney, and served four generations of us with a mixture of professional excellence, common sense, wisdom, and commitment that were unusual, even then. He practiced law until age 91.
Bryson’s passing at age 96 is one of the final grace notes in the passing of the last generation of old-fashioned lawyers. Being “old-fashioned” was more than just Bryson’s continued use of his old manual typewriter or the thousands of hand-written title abstracts that traced the history of almost every square centimeter of Mt. Lebanon Township, Pennsylvania, for almost a century. He also displayed a personal honor, an intellectual vitality, and a commitment to our profession that are sometimes difficult to detect in the American legal profession today, but which were commonplace and obvious a half-century ago.
Anthony T. Kronman described Bryson and his generation of lawyers in his book The Lost Lawyer (Harvard University Press, 1993). Although Bryson would have modestly laughed at any suggestion that the term was descriptive of him, he was part of an tradition that Kronman called the lawyer-statesman, who was motivated and governed by values that truly defined the legal profession:
…At the very center of these values was the belief that the outstanding lawyer — the one who serves as a model for the rest — is not simply an accomplished technician but a person of prudence or practical wisdom as well. It is of course rewarding to become technically proficient in the law. But earlier generations of American lawyers conceived their highest goal to be the attainment of a wisdom that lies beyond technique — a wisdom about human beings and their tangled affairs that anyone who wishes to provide real deliberative counsel must possess. They understood wisdom to be a trait of character that one acquires only by becoming a person of good judgment, and not just an expert in the law. To those who shared this view it seemed obvious that a lawyer’s life could be deeply fulfilling. For the character-virtue of practical wisdom is a central human excellence that has intrinsic value of its own…
Having not had the same privilege that I had to know and, for a brief time, to work with Bryson Schreiner, most readers of this blog will not miss him personally. His passing is nonetheless a loss for the American legal profession. All of us — lawyers and clients, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere — will miss the wisdom, dignity, and high sense of service that Bryson and his generation contributed to our profession and our society. This legacy can serve our profession well for many years to come.
Norman Clark