Bangor attorney Bernard Kubetz tells a story of his first case 25 years ago, in which he represented a plaintiff in Waldo County against Lewis Vafiades. All through the pre-trial work and hearings, Mr. Vafiades treated him as gently as possible; he was helpful and complimentary to the new lawyer and was every bit a gentleman as the trial began.

Mr. Kubetz began his opening statement, but barely got through it. Still kindly and still a gentleman, Mr. Vafiades objected (and was sustained) repeatedly in the first minutes of the trial, and Mr. Kubetz, who wasn’t exactly sure what he was doing wrong, thought it best to settle the case that day, the sooner the better.

“After the trial, he was just as kind and complimentary as before,” Mr. Kubetz recalled the other day. “He was the type of lawyer other lawyers turned to for counsel. And he was beloved.”

Lew Vafiades, raised in Hermon, retired in 1998, after 48 years of practicing law here. He was one of the state’s most respected attorneys, its best litigator, smart without ever being stuffy, low key yet an incredibly hard worker. Upon his death Tuesday at age 81, members of the city’s legal community remembered his integrity, his kindness, his respect for the law.

A couple of years ago, upon Mr. Vafiades’ retirement, then-Magistrate Judge Eugene Beaulieu commented, “Lew has done everything. I’m satisfied that if you asked any lawyer in the state who best exemplifies what a lawyer should be, they would immediately say Lew Vafiades. The entire Penobscot bar takes vicarious credit that he represents the bar. He represents the best that we have. Everyone looks on him this way.”

The general public sees lawyers rarely, and then mostly on the television news. It wouldn’t be surprising to know more lawyer jokes than lawyers. The more people who could have met Mr. Vafiades, the better off the profession would have been.

His long career, his contributions to the Maine Bar and to the community showed what was possible to achieve, whether in the countless instances of informal help for countless friends and acquaintances, in helping to bring legal services to the poor or in his deft, intelligent and understated way of winning the cases few thought winnable. Bangor will miss the ability, dignity and compassion of this remarkable man.