Kennedy changed life of GV attorney

Murray Falk had no problem voting against Edward Kennedy as they took part in a moot court competition at the University of Virginia Law School in the late 1950s.

Although Kennedy and his partner won the first leg of the competition, 2-1, Kennedy demanded to know the name of the judge who voted against them.

“I told him it was me,” Falk recalled. “He wanted to know why and I told him that he was great but John Varick Tunney, his partner, needed a lot of work.”

Kennedy asked Falk to tutor his colleague. Falk agreed and the following year Kennedy and Tunney won the school’s prestigious William Minor Lile Moot Court Competition.

Tunney eventually became a senator from California. Falk remained friends with Kennedy, serving as treasurer for the “Republicans for Kennedy” when Ted’s brother John was running for president.

“The election was so close everybody jokingly claims credit, including us — admitting that if it wasn’t for Republicans for Kennedy, Jack never would have been president.”

Falk, 80, who now resides in Green Valley, is still active as an administrative law judge for the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division.

While practicing law in Boston during Ted’s first senate bid in 1962. Falk was working with Sen. John Culver of Iowa, who was Ted’s roommate at Harvard and his campaign director.

Several months after Ted was elected to the Senate, Falk said he got a call from the U.S. Attorney’s office on orders from Ted, asking him to work as an assistant U.S. attorney.

“That’s really where my life changed,” Falk admitted. “It was his first call that made the difference in my career.”

During that time, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated. Falk sent Ted and the Kennedy family his condolences. Falk in turn received a thank you note for his kind words from Ted on behalf of the family.

Throughout the years, Falk received other notes and Christmas cards from Ted and visited the family compound in Hyannis Port, Mass.

A treasured memento came from Ethyl Kennedy after the assassination of her husband, Robert, in 1968. She signed a photograph of her late husband and expressed her gratitude to Falk for his continued support of the family.

Falk and his wife, Margie, watched Saturday’s funeral for the senator from their home in Canoa Ranch.

Asked what he thought about Ted as a politician, Falk smiled and said, “The amazing thing is, and I hesitate to admit it in Green Valley, is that Ted and I have agreed on every issue. I am an unreconstructed liberal and he was our champion.”

rford@gvnews.com