Above: Vernon Gorton Jr. marches in the Procession of Saint Anthony during the Portsmouth Portuguese American Citizens Club’s annual Saint Anthony’s Feast in July of last year. Mr. Gorton was a lifetime member of the club.
PORTSMOUTH — On the night of May 11 attorney Vernon Gorton Jr. stood before the Portsmouth Town Council, doing something he’d been at for 34 years: making a case for his clients.
He was pale, rail-thin and kept apologizing for his weak voice. But he got through his presentation, which was to secure a liquor license for the private Newport Beach Club, part of the Carnegie Abbey complex.
On Sunday, only six days after that public hearing, Mr. Gorton died from cancer of the esophagus at age 59. He leaves his wife of 24 years, Beverly, and two children, Samuel and Maggie.
Read Vernon Gorton Jr.’s obituary here.
Friends and colleagues who knew him best said they weren’t surprised that Mr. Gorton kept on working despite being ravaged by disease.
“I talked to him on Tuesday after the meeting and I said, ‘How’d it work out?’” recalled Ed Lopes, a former vice president of O’Neill Properties Group, which developed the Newport Beach Club and for which he still works as a consultant.
Mr. Gorton, a former longtime town solicitor for Portsmouth, replied that he struggled a bit but had made his point, Mr. Lopes said.
“It was just amazing that he was there. And even on Tuesday he was asking me questions about another project we had going,” he said. “Often I would drive past his office on weekends and he’d be there on Saturdays and Sundays. That’s just the kind of guy he was.”
Eric Chappell, a local attorney who had known Mr. Gorton for 50 years — “We were in Boy Scouts together,” he said — agreed that his friend was driven to give everything for clients.
“He worked Friday,” said Mr. Chappell, who’s had an office next to Mr. Gorton’s on Chase Road for about three decades. “He was a great lawyer, a great husband and a great father. He was a preeminent lawyer in town, no question about it. He represented some very influential people.”
At the same time, Mr. Gorton was widely respected for his professionalism and fair play, he said. “I don’t know anyone who he was really adversarial with, unless he had to be. That’s a sign of a very good lawyer,” said Mr. Chappell.
“What a guy,” added Town Council Vice President Jim Seveney, who had known Mr. Gorton since high school and roomed with him for two years in college. “If you found yourself in a foxhole, you wanted Vernon Gorton in there with you. He’s got the strongest work ethic of anyone I’ve ever seen and his integrity is total.”
Cancer returned
Mr. Chappell said this was at least the second time Mr. Gorton had battled cancer.
“He had an issue about four years ago and he beat it,” he said. “He had kidney cancer, and he lost a kidney. He was in remission and was doing well. And then it took a turn for the worse.”
Mr. Seveney agreed that the disease progressed rapidly toward the end. “He was beating it for a while, but he had it in his esophagus and that’s really hard,” he said. “He had a big turn at the end. He just kept working his way through it.”
Mr. Seveney sighed. “Cancer is just … My father died at age 59, too. Same thing — cancer.”
Although the disease took a heavy toll on Mr. Gorton physically, he never groused about it, Mr. Seveney said.
“Vern was never one to complain about things. He always talked about how good life was.”
Stayed busy
Mr. Gorton wore many different hats throughout his career. Besides being town solicitor for many years in Portsmouth, he also served in that capacity for the Town of Middletown. He served as special counsel to various town boards in Portsmouth and elsewhere and was a longtime member and past president of the Portsmouth Democratic Town Committee. He was a lifetime member of both the Portuguese American Citizens and Seaconnet Sportsman’s clubs, and even coached softball and baseball.
Despite Mr. Gorton’s busy schedule, Mr. Lopes remembers his longtime friend as “the consummate professional” who was always available to share advice — whether in or out of his law office.
“When my dad passed away many years ago, I called on Vernon to help me wade through the legal waters and he did,” said Mr. Lopes. “When I bought my first house, he was there for that, too. It’s a tremendous loss for the community. It’s just a shock that he’s gone.
“He’s like the older brother I never had. He was a fabulous individual.”