Pa. senator experienced success, failure
William E. Duffield, a former state senator from Fayette County whose once bright legal career ended in disbarment, died Sunday.
Duffield, 79, whose booming voice and confident presence commanded strict attention from jurors, witnesses and opposing counsel in the Fayette County courtrooms, died in Uniontown Hospital following a lengthy illness.
'Bill Duffield lived a full life,' said Fred L. Lebder of Uniontown, chairman of the county's Democratic Party and a former county commissioner.
'Whatever he did, he did it in a big way. As an attorney, at one time he had the largest criminal law practice in Fayette County,' Lebder said.
The story of Duffield's life is one of both great success and disappointing failure.
But friends, like Lebder, say that in the most difficult of times, Duffield persevered.
'As a state senator, he built a reputation fighting for the causes of the little man. He did it his way,' Lebder said.
'Bill was sharp,' said former Fayette County District Attorney Peter U. Hook of Uniontown. 'He and I tried a lot of civil cases against each other. He'd win some and I'd win some. He was a good trial lawyer. You had to be prepared to go into a courtroom against him.'
In 1970, the lifelong Democrat won a seat in the state Senate and served two terms before being defeated by now retired state Sen. J. William Lincoln of Connellsville.
'He was a very talented, very intelligent person,' Lincoln said. 'We had a very long relationship when he was in the Senate and I was in the House. He helped me considerably. Even though I replaced him in the Senate, I had an exceptionally good relationship with him after that.'
By the early 1970s, Duffield's legal career reached a pinnacle when he represented a number of defendants in high-profile murder trials.
His daughter, Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Duffield Vernon, credits her father with instilling in her a love for the law and for politics at an early age.
'He was the strongest and most compassionate man I've ever known,' Vernon said.
Another daughter, Jane Duffield, serves as director of the news bureau for UPMC Health Systems in Pittsburgh.
In 1972, Duffield - a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War - received the Medal of Merit, the highest honor bestowed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.
A year later, then Lt. Gov. Ernest P. Kline was the principal speaker when Uniontown lauded Duffield's efforts on the behalf of those with suffering mental health problems or mental retardation.
But the tide turned at the peak of his legal career in 1975, when Duffield surrendered his law license after it was revealed he misappropriated some $11,000 in clients' estate funds. The charges also cost him the chairmanship of the Senate's Law and Justice Committee.
Undaunted, Duffield bounced back and regained his law license in 1978, only to lose it again in 1980 when he was convicted of mail fraud and perjury. He served six months in a federal prison for placing two ghost employees on the state payroll and mailing paychecks to them.
Five years later, Duffield got his law license back once more. He maintained a busy practice until 1994, when he was disbarred for five years for failing to give a convicted murderer timely notice of a court ruling.
Duffield would not practice law again.
He went to work for his youngest daughter, helping with legal research and other tasks at Vernon's law office until he could no longer continue because of his declining health.
In addition to his daughters, Duffield is survived by a brother, Dr. Howard Duffield of Mandeville, La., and three grandsons.
Friends will be received from 7 to 9 p.m. today and from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in the Andrew D. Ferguson Funeral Home, 80 Morgantown St., Uniontown. Funeral service with full military rites will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
