Page 120 - ACTL Journal Win24

Roger Campbell Spaeder, ’05, passed away October 20, 2023 at the age of seventy-nine. Roger received his Bach- elor of Science in mathematics at Bowling Green State University. He moved to Washington, DC, where he ini- tially worked as a mathematician/analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency and later as a middle school math teacher while working for his law degree at George Wash- ington University. From 1972 to 1976, Roger served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. In 1976, he and a former colleague, Roger Zuckerman (FACTL, ’93), formed their own firm. The “Two Rog- ers” as they would affectionately become known, forged a lifelong friendship and highly successful law firm. Roger is survived by his wife of fifty-five years, Frances (Suther- land), two sons and six grandchildren.
The Honorable Lyle Strom, ’70, passed away on Decem- ber 1, 2023 at the age of ninety-eight. He was inducted as a Fellow in 1970 and was sixty in 1985 when President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the United States Dis- trict Court for the District of Nebraska. Two years later, he became chief judge, holding the position until 1994. He continued to serve on the court as a senior judge until the age of ninety-two. Judge Strom made his most fa- mous ruling in 1993, when he departed from the sen- tencing guidelines over a case in which two Black men were set to receive thirty-year sentences for dealing crack cocaine. His decision to hand down lighter sentences made him the first federal judge to object to the disparity of sentencing for convictions of dealing crack cocaine in- stead of its powder form, an inequity that led to predomi- nantly Black defendants facing significantly harsher pun- ishment. His objection sparked a national debate that led to more equitable guidelines. Judge Strom served in the Merchant Marines as a radio operator during World War II. His daughter went on to outrank him. Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Cassie Strom is the first woman to be promoted to Major General in the Air
Force Judge Advocate Corps. Judge Strom served as an ad- junct professor at Creighton Law School for more than forty years. Judge Strom’s wife, Regina, passed away in 2001; they raised seven children.
Hon. Charles Brown Swartwood III, ’91, died peace- fully in Boston at the age of eighty-five. Brownie’s an- cestors were early settlers of New Amsterdam and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Brownie graduated in 1961 from Brown University and in 1964 from the Boston University School of Law. In 1993, two years after he had been inducted as a Fellow, Brownie was appoint- ed the first full-time U.S. Magistrate Judge assigned to the U.S. District Court in Worcester. He served as the Chief Magistrate Judge from 2005 to his retirement in 2006 from the court when he began work as a medi- ator and arbitrator. In 2009, Brownie was appointed by Governor Patrick as Chairman of the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission, where he served until 2013. Brownie was a life-long member of the Cotuit Mosqui- to Yacht Club. Brownie’s idea of a quick sail was eight hours. After his racing days were over, he spent more than forty days a summer sailing his Swedish sloop, the
Halve Maen.
[EDITOR’S DIGRESSION: We don’t have a picture of Judge Swartwood’s sloop, but we suspect it was a bit smaller than its namesake. The original Halve Maen (Half Moon) was commissioned in 1609 by the Dutch East India Company and captained by Henry Hudson to explore for a Northwest Passage to China. Hudson did not actually find such the Passage, but he did sail up a river and manage to get it named after him. In 1989 a Dutch museum commissioned a replica and a reenact- ment of Hudson’s voyage, so we know how the original Halve Maen must have looked.]
Brownie’s first wife, the mother of his two oldest chil- dren, Gaysie Curtis, died at age twenty-nine. He is sur- vived by his three children, eight grandchildren, and his long-time companion, Heidi Baracsi.
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