JOSEPH G. LYNCH ’47

JOSEPH G. LYNCH, an attorney and devoted Wesleyan alumnus, who in 2004 received the Raymond E. Baldwin Medal, Wesleyan’s highest honor awarded by the alumni body for extraordinary service to the University and to the public, died Sept. 10, 2012. He was 88. A member of Sigma Chi, he received his degree with honors and with distinction in government after serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II and earning three Purple Hearts. He served during the 80th Congress as administrative assistant to Connecticut’s U.S. Senator, Raymond E. Baldwin of the class of 1916, a former Governor of the State of Connecticut, a Trustee of the University, and the person for whom the Baldwin Medal is named. In 1951 he received his law degree from Harvard University and joined the law firm of Halloran, Sage, Phelon & Haggarty, where he remained throughout his 60-year career. He became a noted trial attorney, concentrating in the fields of aviation law, product liability, probate, and education law. Legal counsel to the University for many years, he was also town counsel and Judge of Probate for the town of Portland, Conn. He was a member of the board of directors of the New England Air Museum, the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, and the Rockfall Foundation, and was vice chairman of the State of Connecticut Insurance and Risk Management Board. In 2003 he received the Secretary of State Public Service Award. He was a Life Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. A loyal supporter of the University’s football program, he missed only one Wesleyan football game, home or away, from the early 1950s into the 21st century, and in 1999 the University named him Fan of the Century. Predeceased by his wife, Vicky Hamilton Lynch, four children, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren survive.