Robert ‘Sam’ Barnes; Veteran O.C. Lawyer, Founder of Lincoln Club

Robert Samuel Barnes, a founder of the politically conservative Lincoln Club of Orange County and a revered leader in legal circles for more than 50 years, has died. He was 78.

A magnetic and genteel lawyer better known as Sam, Barnes died Sunday in Newport Beach. He will be honored at services today at Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona del Mar, friends and family said.

Barnes, a past president of the Orange County Bar Assn. whose ancestors were among California’s earliest settlers, was a staunch Republican--but beloved even by Democrats because he wasn’t doctrinaire, colleagues said Wednesday. He was honored with numerous awards for community service--one, “the Sammy,” was named after him--and for lifetime achievement during his career.

“I would expect thousands of people [at his funeral]. . . . I honestly believe that he is the most popular person I’ve known in my life, man or woman,” said Tom Malcolm, another past president of the county bar association who worked for Barnes 30 years ago. “He was extremely smart and had a hilarious sense of humor. He’s going to be missed by so many people.”

Fourth District Court of Appeal Justice Kathleen O’Leary, a veteran county jurist, described Barnes as “a renaissance man--multifaceted.” O’Leary, a former presiding judge of Orange County Superior Court, worked with him on the bar’s annual Law Revue, a charitable fund-raiser in which Barnes loved to perform vaudeville acts.

“He was a remarkable tap-dancer and always very, very upbeat,” O’Leary recalled. “In the revue there were the talents and the no-talents, and I was a no-talent; I announced the acts. But he would insist we all have talents. He was just an incredible cheerleader.”

“It is hard for lawyers to be loved by everybody, and he really was,” she added. “He was kind of a lawyer’s lawyer.”

His family’s roots in the county date back 100 years, which gained Barnes entry into the California Society of Pioneers. His grandfather, George Edgar, was a pioneer merchant and civic leader in Santa Ana for 50 years who came to the city in 1880 and was among the five men who in 1889 won Orange County’s secession from L.A. County.

Barnes was born and reared in Anaheim. He earned undergraduate and law degrees at Stanford University. In 1950, he began practicing law in Orange County and by 1970 was a partner in the politically potent law firm of Duryea, Carpenter & Barnes: Duryea was general counsel for Beckman Instruments; Carpenter was a state senator and head of the state Republican Party; and Barnes was president of the Orange County Bar Assn.

He helped launch the bar association’s Short Stop program and a separate Spanish-language version aimed at turning around arrested youths. Later, he led the bar’s charitable foundation work, which earned him the Franklin G. West award for lifetime achievement.

Barnes was very proud to belong to the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, whose membership is so exclusive that there are probably no more than five other people in Orange County who belong.

“People will remember Sam Barnes as a great guy who was also a great lawyer,” O’Leary said.

Michael FitzGerald, who shared morning coffee with Barnes for 15 years, brought him to the firm of Barnes, Crosby, FitzGerald & Zeman in 1988. Thirty years his junior, FitzGerald said Barnes taught him a great deal about grace, tenacity and love for the law.

“He always did things for the right reasons,” FitzGerald said. “And I think he loved what the law could do more than anyone I’ve known. We’d joke that you’d have to cut him out of his shoes to get him out of here.”

Barnes is survived by his wife, Beverly Brokaw Barnes; son Gilbert Barnes; daughter Luana Bovee; son-in-law Shawn Bovee; daughter-in-law Teri Barnes; and four grandchildren.