Bob Weber was a real nice guy to be around.

That’s how colleague James D. Moore regarded him.

“He was a real gentleman,” said Moore, part of Lynn’s Bradley, Moore, Primason, Cuffe and Weber law firm that Weber enriched for the last three years he practiced.

“We were looking to expand,” said Moore, who first met Weber when he was 12 years old. “And we looked toward lawyers whose firms looked as if they might be starting to wrap it up.

“Bob was one of them,” he said. “We were all so comfortable together. We had this long-term relationship. He spent his last years in the legal business with us, and it was very good. He was a real nice guy to be around.”

Robert J. (Bob) Weber, 90, died Oct. 6. Those who knew him best said he was the type of person who encouraged you, no matter what you wanted to do.

“It’s easy for lawyers to encourage other people to be lawyers,” said Moore, “but seriously, if you went up to him and said ‘I want to be a nuclear physicist and want to live in Antarctica, he’d tell you ‘yeah, you can do that.'”

One of those who benefited from Weber’s friendship and mentorship is Theresa Surette, who is currently practicing with the firm.

“He was unbelievably supportive,” said Surette, who joined Weber as a paralegal and then, with his encouragement, put herself through law school at night and practices probate law and estate planning. “I worked with him before, and then came over to the firm when he joined.

“He treated me like family. He was a great guy. The world lost a good man.”

Surette said once she decided to go to law school, Weber helped and encouraged her.

“I don’t know if I’d have been able to do it without his encouragement,” she said. “When I got my license, he came with me to the ceremony and presented it to me.”

Weber passed the bar in 1953. But he also had political ambitions, thanks to his boyhood friend, former Lynn Mayor Thomas P. Costin.

“He grew up on Myrtle Street and I grew up on Pennybrook Road,” said Costin. “We’d walk together every Sunday to go to the 9 o’clock children’s Mass at Sacred Heart.”

Through the years, Costin and Weber got friendly — so much so that when Costin graduated from being the councilor of Ward 7 to being a councilor-at-large, Weber ran for, and won,  his old seat.

Then, Costin — not yet 30 — decided to run for mayor against Arthur J. Frawley.

“He and Bob were friends,” said Costin. “But he chose to back me over Arthur. When I won, I named him my administrative assistant.”

It was there that Weber and Moore crossed paths for the first time.

“My sister (Nancy) took me to City Hall, took me up to see the mayor, and I met Bob.”

In the summer of 1956, Costin — a delegate to the Democratic National Convention — took Weber along. And the two of them helped launch the campaign that almost got John F. Kennedy nominated on the national ticket with Adlai Stevenson as vice president. He had befriended Kennedy, and the future president included Costin on his political team in Chicago.

“Across from where we were staying,” said Costin, “there was a hotel that sold plain-colored ties for a buck apiece. I told them I wanted 200 of them, but only if they could stitch ‘Kennedy, VP’ on all of them. That cost me an extra quarter a tie.

“I gave him half and I took half and we went around giving them to anyone we saw with a Kennedy banner or a sticker.”

In the end, Kennedy lost the nomination to Estes Kefauver.

Both Surette and Moore spoke of Weber’s warmth and sense of ethics.

“He was always looking to do the right thing, and he was particular about his ethics, so he was good to be around that way,” said Moore. “He was just a good, family guy.”

“He taught me how to treat people the right way, and how to care for people, and how to be responsive to your clients.”

That care also extended to matters outside the legal realm, Surette said. When she was sick, and required surgery, he was right there with her.

“He was very supportive,” she said. “He always said, ‘I’m a phone call away.'”

 

Correction

Due to a reporter’s error, the late Robert Weber’s tenure in the Bradley, Moore, Primason, Cuffe & Weber law firm was incorrect in Monday’s Item. Weber joined the firm in 1998 and retired in 2012.