Two lawyers, one community, five decades of service

To sit down for a leisurely conversation with Morganton’s husband and wife attorney team — Rob Gage and Amy Cox — is to enjoy a walk through Burke County’s history for the last five decades.

Rob became licensed as a North Carolina attorney in the bicentennial year of 1976. He and Amy came to Morganton and set up practice here in the early 1980s. Both have contributed mightily to the civic life of this community since their arrival.

Rob was born in Buffalo, N.Y., but work required his father, an electrical engineer, to move the family twice as Rob was growing up, first to Indianapolis, Ind., and then to New Jersey.

Amy was born and reared in Asheboro.

The pair met in the stacks of the law library at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Law, where Rob, who had earned a bachelor’s degree at Harvard, and Amy, who received her bachelor’s at UNC-Chapel Hill, were both students.

Fifty years later we sit in the conference room of the couple’s offices, in a comfortable old house on Avery Avenue in downtown Morganton, just across the street from Food Matters.

The only thing that speaks of autumn on this mid-October morning is the calendar. The rising heat and humidity, the green leaves and grass, even the air itself, all proclaim that summer has not yet ended.

But both attorneys acknowledge that they are no longer in the summer of their lives or of their professional careers. Amy has very nearly wrapped up her part of the practice. Rob is “winding down” on his side.

Here are excerpts from that conversation with two veteran lawyers for whom retirement is about to become a reality.

WHY A CAREER IN LAW?:AMY: “I certainly did not come from a family of lawyers. I had earned an English degree and was not at all clear what I meant to do with it. The opportunity to go to law school opened up for me and I kept putting one foot in front of the other until we were in practice.”

ROB: “Going into the law was a notion I developed in high school. I got a ride to prom with a friend’s father who was a lawyer. That guy drove a big, fancy car. I thought, ‘I could go for this.’ But I never got the big, fancy car. Today, I drive a Volkswagen, and I usually ride my bicycle to work.”

WHY MORGANTON?ROB: “We were both working in legal services, Amy in Greensboro and me in Charlotte. We were recruited to come to Morganton by Ellis Aycock. We wanted a place where we could get married and work together. And I was growing tired of the busyness of Charlotte.”

AMY: “We wanted the type of town where we could establish our practice, establish a home, and raise a family. And we are very happy to have raised our kids in Morganton.”

ROB: “I remember our realtor, Sharon Marlow, was driving us around Morganton and we were on Kirksey Drive, and I looked down and saw the Catawba River and thought instantly about the potential for a greenway there.” (Rob, who served on the Morganton City Council from 1987 to 1991, was instrumental in the establishment of the Catawba River Greenway.)

MENTORS AND INFLUENCERSROB: “The Ervin Family of course. Sen. Ervin. Judge Three-Eye. And Bobby and Jimmy. We admired Bob Byrd greatly. Tom Starnes. I remember asking Tom if there was room for two new lawyers in Morganton and he replied, ‘There’s always room at the top.’ John McMurray, Steve Daniel. Don Hemstreet. What a marvelous man. Bob Benner, he taught me so much about the outdoors and how to be prepared for what nature can throw at you. And, of course, Waits Gordon. He taught us so much about authentic Christian leadership. I also have to mention our paralegal, Linda Craig. She is the foundation to the success of our practice. Linda has been with us since 2002 and keeps me focused on our clients.”

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS A CITY COUNCILMANROB: “Just running for a council seat was quite an experience. Getting out and campaigning door to door. Literally meeting hundreds of people and learning what their concerns were. Advocating for the establishment of the Catawba River Greenway was important. Helping defend the city cable system from Comcast. And helping arrange, with school board member Don Hemstreet, the swap of the old Morganton High School property for extension of a city sewer line to Table Rock Middle School, which avoided possible sewer discharge into Canoe Creek.”

A CIVIC ENDEAVOR YOU’RE BOTH PROUD OF?ROB: “We joined North Morganton United Methodist Church in 1981. We wanted a church home in which to raise our family. I joined a group of men who went to the prison each Sunday morning for Bible lessons. And I spent the next 30 years getting up and going over there early each Sunday morning.”

AMY: “I participated in that effort also. I would head over to the prison on the mornings that Rob could not go. Several times, I got turned away at the door because they didn’t want a woman inside, but I thought it was very important.”

Before we moved on to my final question about retirement, Rob insisted we talk about two things that are dear to his heart — experiences in the outdoors and the practice of yoga.

ROB: “We did dozens of outdoor trips with our children and now we’re doing them with our grandchildren. Whenever I am in the outdoors, I am astounded by the beauty and variety of the physical world. I have climbed to the top of three volcanoes, and when you get to the top, to the edge, and look down, that is certainly an overwhelming spiritual experience.

“As for yoga, I first started more than 30 years ago at the Phifer Wellness Center. I practice nearly every day. He has kept me on an even keel and relieved a great deal of stress. I’ve been practicing law for 50 years. Not many lawyers reach that milestone. It is truly a marathon, and you have to stay well. You have to stay balanced. I can get very tiresome in preaching the virtues of yoga, but I do it anyway.”

Now, the final question:

WHAT WILL STEPPING AWAY FROM LONG CAREERS MEAN FOR YOU?ROB: “I have enjoyed the practice of law, particularly working as a board-certified Workers Compensation Specialist. (Rob has held that title since 2000, when the Bar initiated that specialty practice area.) It is very satisfying to work for a person who has been injured and to help secure that person a nest egg so that they can prepare for the next step of their lives. The practice of law is a calling, a noble calling. But I think I will be content and I think I will enjoy retirement.”

AMY: “I have enjoyed our time in practice here in Morganton very much. But it’s time to step away. We have our three children and six grandchildren and that’s where our priorities are now. It’s time.”

The formal questions were over, and we were discussing ideas for a photo when Amy remembered an old recurring segment from Saturday Night Live featuring a Latin ballplayer named Chico Escuela who was portrayed by Garrett Morris.

Escuela’s signature line was “Baseball has been berry berry good to me.”

“That’s us,” she laughed. “We can both say ‘Morganton has been berry berry good to me.’”