All 9 Justices Among 900 at Service for Powell

More than 900 people--including all nine Supreme Court members--attended a funeral service Monday for Lewis F. Powell Jr., one of the most influential Supreme Court justices of the 20th century.

Mourners listened as Powell was praised for his grace and kindness during the service at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, where Powell was a member for about 60 years. Powell, who died last week at age 90, was buried after a private graveside ceremony beside his wife, Jo, who died in 1996.

“His remarkable influence resulted from a combination of ability, fair-mindedness and personal grace,” Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said of Powell.

“As a model of human kindness . . . there will never be a better man,” Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said of Powell, a justice from 1972 until 1987. “We love you, and we always will.”

The soft-spoken and unassuming Powell wielded great power on the nation’s highest court, because his moderate views placed him at its ideological center. Most notably, he wrote the controlling opinion in 1978 when the court, by a 5-4 vote, first endorsed the concept of affirmative action but outlawed the use of racial quotas.

Speaking for Powell’s four children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild, Lewis F. Powell III remembered his father’s abiding love. “We shall never forget him. God bless him,” he said.

O’Connor, who in 1981 became the first woman on the court, said no one had been more helpful to her at the time than Powell. She remembered him as a “superb dancer” and recalled his joking that he would be remembered as “the first Supreme Court justice to have danced with another justice.”