BANGOR – Malcolm E. Morrell Jr., a prominent Bangor lawyer who served as clerk of the Bangor Publishing Co. for more than 28 years and also as its general counsel, died on Friday at the age of 77 after a long battle with cancer.

Born in Portland on Aug. 25, 1927, to Malcolm E. and Edna B. Morrell, he was raised with his brother John in Brunswick.

Morrell was a senior partner in the law firm of Eaton, Peabody, Bradford & Veague, which he joined in 1954. Morrell’s career at the firm focused on labor and employment law and general corporate law. He acted as head of the firm’s labor and employment department until 1999. Morrell also served as president of the firm from 1981 to 1991 and as chairman from 1991 to 2001.

“Mal was clearly a very outstanding person,” said longtime colleague and friend Norman Ledwin, president and chief executive officer of Eastern Maine Health Care Systems. “He engaged and supported a lot of businesses in the community and gave me a lot of professional insight. I saw him as a mentor of employment and labor law.”

A 1949 graduate of Bowdoin College and 1952 graduate of Boston University Law School, Morrell was admitted to the bar of the state of Maine in 1952. He received the Maine State Bar Association’s Life Member Award in 2003 for 50 years of membership and service.

“Mal was very respected by his peers- not only locally in Bangor, but in Portland and also throughout the state,” Ledwin said Sunday night. He was “very prominent in the city of Bangor. He will be extremely missed, not only professionally, but also in civic activities in Bangor and also as a friend.”

Beyond his professional career, Morrell was a former trustee and past moderator at the All Souls Congregational Church in Bangor, former director and past president of the United Way of Penobscot Valley, a member and past president of the Bangor Rotary Club, a former trustee and past vice president of Maine Central Institute, a former trustee and past president of the Bangor YMCA, and an emeritus member of the board of overseers at Bowdoin College.

Morrell is survived by his wife of 53 years, Miriam I. Morrell of Bangor; three children, Stephen G. Morrell of Brunswick, Catherine Morrell Ambo of Greenfield, Mass., and Susan G. Morrell of Amherst, N.H.; a brother, John B. Morrell of Baltimore; and six grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the All Souls Congregational Church, 10 Broadway, Bangor. From 4 to 7 p.m. Monday, friends may call at Brookings-Smith, 133 Center St., Bangor.