Courtroom is Dedicated to Bill O’Malley

William C. (Bill) O’Malley, who served as president of NDAA in 1982-83, was one of a small group of NDAA visionaries who shared a dream back in the 1980s that one day local prosecutors would have their own national training center.

O’Malley, district attorney of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, did not live to see that dream come true. He died unexpectedly in April 1995, at the age of 52, only a few years before the NDAA National Advocacy Center opened. But his spirit now pervades the advocacy center in a permanent way. His portrait, commissioned by his home state’s Massachusetts District Attorneys Association, hangs in what used to be the advocacy center’s Courtroom Five, but now is the William C. O’Malley Courtroom.

The courtroom was dedicated December 11 in a ceremony attended by five former NDAA presidents, including Executive Director Newman Flanagan and Tom Charron, director of education at the advocacy center; plus O’Malley’s widow, Amy, other members of his family, former associates including his longtime first assistant, Joseph P. (Joe) Gaughan; friends and a class of prosecutors attending the advocacy center.

Tom Charron declared that “if it had not been for Bill O’Malley, none of us would be sitting here today,” declaring that “he pushed, as president of NDAA and in his various other capacities, to make this facility a reality.”

Former President John Justice (1998-99) said that “a handful of people” were responsible for creation of the advocacy center. One of these, he declared, was Bill O’Malley, who he said “was the inspiration.” He added, “Billy would be proud today to see what has come of his work, and we’re all proud to have known Billy O’Malley.”

Another speaker was former NDAA president Michael Barnes (1995-96), now an Indiana Court of Appeals judge. It was Judge Barnes who signed the memorandum of understanding with then Attorney General Janet Reno formalizing the agreement with DOJ to create the advocacy center. He said that the dedication of the courtroom was a fitting tribute to O’Malley, who he said “always made sure that education, training and quest for excellence (in prosecution) was a priority for NDAA.”

Former president Stuart A. VanMeveren (1999-2000), representing President Kevin P. Meenan, recalled O’Malley’s interest in technology “when most of us didn’t know what a computer was” led NDAA into the computer age. He added, “Billy was a guy who, even if you didn’t know him well, you felt as if you did, because of his personality, knowledge and charisma.”

Executive Director Newman Flanagan (NDAA president in 1992-93), a longtime close friend of O’Malley as well as a former fellow Massachusetts DA, described O’Malley’s ability to be at ease with anyone, from an ordinary citizen to the president of the United States. He recalled, “I can see him now, standing with the president and the attorney general in the Rose Garden, speaking on behalf of the prosecutors of this country on the issue of crime…and you had to feel proud that you were a prosecutor and that Billy O’Malley was speaking on behalf of your profession.”

Amy O’Malley declared that her husband “not only had a vision as a teacher, he was a teacher. What would matter to him today is you young prosecutors here, sitting in this classroom, He would want to inspire you. He would want to teach you. And I hope that this will happen anyway, through his memory and through his legacy—this advocacy center.

“To those of you who miss him, his wit and his intellect, it’s still there, in his boys. And the humor in those eyes is reflected in his grandson.”