| Stephen A. Trimble |
D.C. Lawyer Specialized In Civil Litigation
Monday, August 17, 2009
Stephen A. Trimble, 76, a civil litigation specialist who retired in 2005 as a senior partner of the Washington law firm Hamilton and Hamilton, died
Aug. 5 at the Grand Oaks Assisted Living facility in Washington as a result of complications from emphysema. He was a longtime District resident.
Mr. Trimble joined Hamilton and Hamilton in 1962, and his clients included Southern Railway Co. and its successor Norfolk Southern Railway,
Metro, Pepco, Catholic University and the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.
He represented the archdiocese during a dispute that arose in 1979 when atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair sued to prevent Pope John Paul II from
celebrating Mass on the Mall. O'Hair listed as defendants the Interior Department and National Park Service, which have jurisdiction over the Mall.
Mr. Trimble told a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington: "There must be a blindness exercised by the government to prove
neutrality. It must not favor religion over nonreligion and must not favor nonreligion over religion."
The panel unanimously rejected O'Hair's complaint, upholding the National Park Service's policy of issuing permits to all religious and nonreligious
groups that ask to use public parkland.
Stephen Asbury Trimble was a native Washingtonian and a 1951 graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School. He graduated in 1955 from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was battalion commander of the Navy ROTC unit and co-captain and most valuable player of
the varsity lacrosse team.
After Marine Corps service from 1955 to 1958, he graduated in 1961 from Georgetown University law school and spent a year as assistant
corporation counsel for the District of Columbia.
Mr. Trimble was an officer in many professional associations, including past president of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia and the
National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel. He was a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation. He was
a frequent lecturer and wrote legal articles about trial strategy and tactics in civil cases.
He was a former president of the Chevy Chase Club, and his other memberships included the Catholic Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in
Washington.
His wife of 44 years, Mary Ellen Lynagh Trimble, died in 2008.
Survivors include a brother, James L. Trimble of Alexandria; and two sisters, Elaine T. Patterson of Hampton, Va., and Mary T. Smith of Richmond.
-- Adam Bernstein