Frank Coffin will be honored at a reception Monday for his distinguished career as a judge.

“As Maine goes,” the saying says, “so goes the nation.”

But the bellwether reputation disappeared in 1960, when Maine’s statewide elections were moved from September to November, ending the gubernatorial election’s status as a predictor of national voting trends.

That year, Democrat John F. Kennedy narrowly won the presidency. But the popular vote in Maine went for the national loser, Republican Richard Nixon. Two-time 2nd District Congressman Frank M. Coffin, the Democratic candidate for governor of Maine, was also defeated.

And thank goodness for that.

Had Coffin won the Blaine House, there’s no telling where his political career would have taken him. And there’s a good chance Maine and the nation may not have had the benefit of his judicial wisdom and temperament for the next four decades.

Coffin, a native son of Lewiston and long-time South Portland resident, eventually became deputy administrator of the Agency for International Development and then the U.S. representative to the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. When a seat opened on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie – who with Coffin had revived the state’s moribund Democratic Party – convinced President Lyndon B. Johnson to nominate Coffin for the nation’s second-highest court.

Judge Coffin was appointed in 1965, served as the appeals court’s chief judge from 1972 to 1983, took senior status in 1989 and officially retired from the bench in 2006. He’ll turn 90 next July.

On Monday evening, Nov. 17, the legal community will celebrate Judge Coffin’s commitment to justice in a low-key reception sponsored by Pine Tree Legal Assistance at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland.

“Originally, we had hoped to present Judge Coffin with the Muskie Access to Justice Award, which annually is presented to someone who has made significant contributions to justice for low-income Mainers,” Pine Tree Executive Director Nan Heald said. But the Muskie dinner raises money for Maine’s six legal aid providers, and judicial ethics don’t allow federal judges to receive such an award in the context of a fundraising event.

“We decided on a simple reception that would allow members of Maine’s legal community and the general public to express their thanks to (Judge Coffin and his wife Ruth Coffin) for over 60 years of public service to the people of Maine,” Heald said, “and in particular, for everything he has done to advance the cause of justice for our most vulnerable residents.”

Judge Coffin is the inspiration for the Frank M. Coffin Family Law Fellowship, a Maine Bar Foundation program funded by 16 law firms, which allows lawyers to spend two years at a time representing low-income clients in family law cases. And he was the first chairman of the Justice Action Group, an organization created in 1995 that provides leadership and coordination for the provision of legal aid to low-income and elderly Mainers.

Monday’s reception will include videotaped and written tributes to Coffin from his colleagues and former law clerks – the “Coffin Clever,” who number 68 and include respected lawyers and judges, and even a former Clinton Cabinet member. (My wife, I’m proud to say, is one of them.) Not surprisingly, many gravitate toward public service – teaching, government agencies, legal aid providers, public interest groups. In their descriptions of the judge and his qualities, some words are heard over and over: wisdom, dignity, respect, inspiration, grace, integrity, civility, fairness, generosity and humanity.

The judge is an author and an artist, and a role model for anyone who desires to serve the public. And although he has played political hardball and served in every branch of government, he never takes himself too seriously. There is a persistent twinkle in his eye, befitting a man whose clerks on every April Fool’s Day would manage to make him the brunt of some good-natured practical joke. He claims he always knew something was coming, but never failed to fall victim, either.

Up to 250 people are expected to attend Monday’s two-hour event in Portland. Guests will have a chance to mingle and greet Judge Coffin and Ruth. It’s a chance to say thank you to someone who has enriched all of us with his passion for justice and public service.

If as Maine goes, so goes the nation, there’s no better example to follow than the one set by Frank M. Coffin.

Mo Mehlsak is editor of The Forecaster. He can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 107, or [email protected].