Charles Harvey; took part in Three Mile Island inquiry

CHARLES HARVEY

A week before Christmas, attorney Charles Harvey Jr., 59, of Portland, Maine, learned he had incurable pancreatic cancer.

He revealed the news in gentle e-mails to friends and colleagues and noted the irony. He had never taken a single sick day in 34 years of practicing law, he said.

Mr. Harvey, who grew up in Beverly, faced his illness with characteristic wit and compassion, according to family and friends.

He wrote to them of waking one morning in January with a black tongue.

"My self-absorption barely under control, my mind, working at the speed of a colonial pump, then realized that about 15 minutes earlier, I had polished off a blackberry popsicle [sic]," he said. "I have decided to embrace the more benign diagnosis and, indeed, today my black tongue is in remission."

Mr. Harvey, who in 1979 was appointed associate chief counsel to President Carter's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island to investigate the most serious nuclear power plant accident in the nation's history, died Wednesday at a hospice in Scarborough.

After 20 years with the Portland law firm Verrill Dana, Mr. Harvey opened his own law practice with a partner in 1995 and specialized in medical malpractice defense work.

His law partner, Robert Frank, said Mr. Harvey was "an extraordinary talent" and a quick study whose humor and charm won over juries.

"Chuck could capture in a few sentences, and with uncanny clarity, what others might have taken an hour to say or pages to write," Frank said. "He had a sixth sense for seeing to the heart of the matter, for reading people and situations clearly, and for illuminating the wisest course of action."

Mr. Harvey won a $2.2 million jury verdict against the Rival Co. for the family of an infant who was badly burned by the manufacturer's electric potpourri pot.

The US Court of Appeals upheld the award in 1997.

Mr. Harvey also amassed a "remarkable record" of victories before Maine's medical malpractice screening panels, Frank said.

He represented Medical Mutual Insurance Company of Maine, which insures most of the state's physicians, and never lost at trial, according to Mary Elizabeth Knox, assistant vice president overseeing claims.

"He was a fabulous attorney representing all of our insured," Knox said. "He also was a very humble man, and a very humorous man."

Mr. Harvey was the son of Charles and Phyllis Harvey of Gloucester.

He graduated from St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers and earned a degree in philosophy in 1971 from Assumption College in Worcester, where he was president of student government.

He spent his summers working at the Myopia Hunt Club in South Hamilton to pay for his college books, his family said.

"He was a great kid from birth - so smart and so caring. Everyone is devastated by this," said his youngest sister, Carol Wilson of Magnolia, Mass. "He's always been our hero and always will be."

In 1974, Mr. Harvey earned his law degree from the University of Maine Law School, where he was the editor of the Law Review.

An avid sailor and lobsterman, Mr. Harvey decided to make Portland his home.

He married Whitney Ann Neville, originally of New Canaan, Conn., in 1985. Their son, John, is a senior at Bates College in Lewiston and daughter, Charlotte, is a freshman at Trinity College in Hartford.

"He enjoyed every minute of those kids' childhoods," Wilson said. "He would travel hours to see his son's swim meets. He never missed his daughter Charlotte at a horse show or a play."

In the 1980s, he bought a cottage on tiny Chebeague Island across Casco Bay and enjoyed many peaceful summers with his family.

Maine's trial justices and judges honored him this year with the McKusick Award, named in honor of a former Maine Supreme Judicial Court chief justice.

"Attorney Harvey has achieved the status of being 'a lawyer's lawyer,' " the judges wrote. "His expertise, professionalism, kindness, and humor serve as a model to which all members of our profession should aspire."

Longtime friend Ted Rintel of Portland said Mr. Harvey had a knack for taking care of others.

"He was an incredibly bright guy who had a keen sense of humor. He was sort of the antithesis of the Me Generation. He put other people first, always," Rintel said.

In a Jan. 20 e-mail, Mr. Harvey thanked his many friends for their support and said he "did not want to just 'go silent' without a parting report." "May you never travel this path," he told them, "but if you must, may you have such friends."

In addition to his parents, his sister, his wife, and children, Mr. Harvey leaves sisters Joanne Gibbs and Marcia, both of Gloucester; and several nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Portland. Burial will be private.