Retired attorney Gene Braswell dies at age 74
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 22, 2016 9:53 AM
Retired attorney Ronald Gene Braswell Sr. is being remembered by friends and co-workers today for a legacy of judicial excellence and community service.
Braswell 74, died Wednesday morning surrounded by his family at his home in Goldsboro.
The family will receive friends from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 23, in the fellowship hall of St. Luke United Methodist Church, 1608 E. Pine St. and at other times at the home.
A funeral service will follow at 1 p.m. in the sanctuary with the Rev. Adam Seate officiating and assisted by Rufus Butner and Clay Parker. Burial will be in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.
A native of Wilmington, Braswell graduated from Wake Forest University of Law in 1972.
He practiced with Henson P. Barnes and they established the law firm of Barnes, Braswell, and Haithcock now the firm of Haithcock, Barfield, Hulse, and Kinsey.
As a defense attorney Braswell represented clients from the local courts to the United States Supreme Court where he appeared in 1979 to argue the case, North Carolina v. Butler, for the state.
"I worked with Gene Braswell for about 25 years," said Jo Ann Aycock of Pikeville, a retired legal secretary. "He was a great lawyer and was a hard worker and believed in everyone working hard. He was a good Christian man, and he will be missed by everyone who knew him. I will truly miss him.
"Gene had a very strong work ethic, and if you worked with him, he never expected more out of you than he expected out of himself. His clients considered him their friend as well as their attorney. He was a wonderful attorney and person to work with and I will really miss him."
Braswell was involved at St. Luke United Methodist Church serving in many capacities and held memberships in various civic and community groups.
He also was involved with the Boy Scouts of America and the Community Soup Kitchen.
Braswell was always willing to help those who could not help themselves, said Jimmie Edmundson, a retired bank executive and who used to attend St. Luke UMC with Braswell.
"He was not only a good attorney, he was a good person," Edmundson said. "He always stepped up whenever there was a need. Whenever there was somebody who needed something, he always stepped up. He was a huge supporter of the church.
"I did some business dealings with him, and I always found him to be just a straight up kind of guy and always wanting to do the right thing. It is so sad. I knew he had been sick."
Geoff Hulse joined the law firm in 1990 after practicing law elsewhere for a few years.
It was quite a time to be involved in the practice and to see Braswell's mastery of the law in so many areas, Hulse said.
While there are many specialties today, Braswell was equally adept at criminal, traffic, personal injury, domestic, estates loan closings and anything else, and Braswell handled all of them extremely well, Hulse said.
""Therefore the people who came to see him were very loyal to him as he was to his clients," Hulse said. "He just built a huge practice. He was the epitome of the small town lawyer that I imagine every lawyer who came along at that time envisioned what they would like to become."