Sunday, February 13, 2000
Judge Bettman dead at 82
Public service in law, politics came naturally
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Gilbert Bettman, feisty judge and patrician descendant of the rabbi who made Cincinnati the world center for Reform Judaism, died of heart failure Saturday at Jewish Hospital.
Judge Bettman, of Walnut Hills, was 82.
“To me, he exemplified the type of moral courage we don't see enough of in today's world,” wife Marianna Brown Bettman said. “I hope someone will step in and fill the void he leaves.”
Judge Bettman's mother was granddaughter of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, founder of Hebrew Union College and spiritual leader of the synagogue that took his name.
Judge Bettman's father, a pillar of the Republican Party, was a vice mayor of Cincinnati, attorney general and Supreme Court justice of Ohio.
In 1993, recalling abuse for seemingly lenient decisions on the bench, Judge Bettman told The Cincinnati Enquirer, “If I have to go along with the mob spirit, I don't want the job. I'm going to do what's right no matter what the conse quences.”
Gilbert Bettman was an Eagle Scout. He graduated from Walnut Hills High School and Harvard University. When the United States went to war in 1941, he heeded his father's urging to finish Harvard Law School before enlisting.
He joined the Army in mid-1942 as a private, eschewing opportunities for a potentially softer berth as an Air Corps officer.
“I went to the Philippines, got promoted to sergeant,” the judge told Cincinnati Magazine in 1987. “I landed one day, General (Douglas) MacArthur landed the next, and he got his picture in the paper.”
After 100 days of combat on Leyte, the protesting Sgt. Bettman was promoted to lieutenant.
He survived as a field artillery forward observer on Okinawa to win the Bronze Star for valor in 1944 and returned to Cincinnati to practice law, marry, win a seat in the Ohio General Assembly, and begin more than three decades on
the Cincinnati Municipal Court and Hamilton County Common Pleas Court and 1st District Ohio Court of Appeals.
“He was far more liberal than the normal Republican,” said lawyer Charles Lindberg on Saturday. That distinction didn't keep Mr. Lindberg from recalling his longtime GOP associate as a “very fair, very kind judge.”
Compared to many local judges appointed or elected from ranks of prosecutor, Gilbert Bettman was liberal and critics used that “L word” to condemn him as soft on criminals.
He framed a response to critics this way:
“We still proceed on the simplistic assumption that to "cure' the "criminal,' he need only be put behind bars for increasing lengths of time.
“The fact is that this costs you and me about $25,000 per year per prisoner and demonstrably improves him not a whit. It is a tragic waste.”
Judge Bettman was retired from the court in 1992 by Ohio's mandatory age limit and remained active as a mediator, commuting in a Volkswagen convertible.
Judge Bettman's half-century of civic and professional associations included the Harvard Club and Harvard Law School Associations of Cincinnati and Ohio, Cincinnati and Ohio State Bar Associations, Ohio and National Municipal Judges Associations, Governor's Task Force on Corrections, Ohio Federal-State Judicial Relations Committee, Criminal Justice Committee of the Ohio State Bar Association, Cincinnati Lawyers Club.
Also the Central Psychiatric Clinic, Walnut Hills High School Parents Association, Boy Scouts, Big Brothers, Council on World Affairs, Hamilton County Republican Party, Disabled American Veterans, American Legion, Elks and Eagles, Cincinnati Scholarship Foundation, and Mayor's Friendly Relations Committee (now the Human Relations Commission) Jewish Community Center, Jewish Welfare Fund, Israel Bonds, B'nai B'rith and Isaac M. Wise Temple brotherhood.
Judge Bettman also is survived by: a son, Gilbert Jr. of Los Angeles; two daughters, Louise Bettman of Clifton and Helen Cohen of Houston; a sister, Carol Lazar of New York City; a brother, Alfred Bettman of Petaluma, Calif.; and three grandchildren.
Visitation will be 7-9 p.m. Monday at Hebrew Union College, Mayerson Hall, 3101 Clifton Ave., Clifton. The funeral will be 2 p.m. Monday at Isaac M. Wise Temple, 8329 Ridge Road, Amberley Village, with burial in Spring Grove Cemetery.
Memorials may be sent to Legal Aid Society, 901 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202 or Jewish Family Service, 1811 Losantiville Ave., Cincinnati 45237.
Failure of tank leads to national search
Tough, powerful prosecutor is unyielding under fire
Prosecutor's son gets biggest raise
Holcomb in his own words
Others on Holcomb
Freedom Center evolving
Judge Bettman dead at 82
Tips to Hillary on how to win by failing
How to beat the system
Gas prices hit schools hard
Mason loves winning girls team
Pair rescued from truck roof in river
Queen City's moments to shine reflected in book
Two escape explosion and fire in house
Lucas lauded by Republican pundits
Little wins keep lottery play going
Jefferson-Hemings is a love story
Thomas Jefferson's family tree
Pill's promise, naturally, a come-on to men
Book aids adjustment to life with disability
CCM does impressive Kurt Weill double bill
CCM opera professor departing
Choreographer illustrates modern dance in 'Beholder'
Classical hall picks 10 for 2000
Conductor orchestrates some timely fun
Fine Arts Fund grants vital to small groups
GET TO IT
Schulz drew on compassion in letter to boy
Chamber goes to bat in high court race
Country reigns at Red Barn
Director grew school co-op
Ky. funds might invest in ventures
Lakota agency getting a home
Machine aids UC designers
Program brings Net to Appalachia
TRISTATE DIGEST
