The Memorial Wall

Ramstad, James M. 'Jim' 74, of Wayzata, died peacefully on November 5, 2020, of Parkinson's Disease with Lewy Body. He spent his final days at home, surrounded by his loving family. Preceded in death by his parents, Marvin and Della Mae; grandparents, Oscar and Amelia Fode, and Joseph and Sarah Ramstad; and mother-in-law Muffy Christen. Survived by his loving wife Kathryn; daughter Christen (Billy) DeLaney; sister Sheryl Ramstad (Lee Larson); sister- and brother-in-law Rebecca and Robert Pohlad; father-in-law Paul Christen; nieces Sarah Kmetz (Brian) and Kristina Hvass (Jordan Taylor); and nephews Charles Hvass (Brittany Martutartus) and Karl Larson; and many cousins. He leaves behind his devoted dog, Wink. Jim was a dedicated public servant who impacted tens of thousands of lives through his policy accomplishments and personal service. He leaves a legacy of love, service, dignity, and respect, especially for the most vulnerable in our society.

Jim's political philosophy was guided by a fundamental belief in the importance of working in a bipartisan, pragmatic, common-sense way to solve problems. A nine-term Member of Congress, he was a member of the Ways and Means Committee and its Subcommittees on Health, Trade, and Oversight. He also served 10 years in the Minnesota State Senate, rising to Assistant Minority Leader. Congressman Ramstad authored a number of important pieces of legislation that were passed into law. He was proudest of the bipartisan Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Parity Act, which became law in 2008. He was named "Legislator of the Year" by the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Addictions Council in 1998, by the National Mental Health Association in 1999, and by the National Association of Police Organizations in 1997 and 2000.

Jim graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Minnesota, earned his law degree with honors at George Washington University, and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the University of St. Thomas. He was a Resident Fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School and served as an adjunct professor at American University and Montgomery College. He loved his country and served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves. Committed to helping the underserved throughout his life, Jim served on 20 non-profit boards, co-founded the Lake Country Food Bank, and volunteered at Sharing and Caring Hands. He was a member of American Legion Post 118, Plymouth Lions Club, and the Wayzata Chamber of Commerce. Jim and his wife Kathryn have been active members of Wayzata Community Church.

After retiring from Congress, Jim served as an advisor to the Hazelden Foundation, the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, and the alliantgroup. He was also on the board of the Partnership to End Addiction. Shortly before his death, Jim celebrated his 39th year of sobriety. Throughout the years, he supported countless friends, colleagues, and total strangers on their roads to recovery and was active in Alcoholics Anonymous. He lived by and frequently referred to the Serenity Prayer. To support veterans' efforts to become sober, Jim established the Ramstad Recovery Fund, which provides access to treatment for America's heroes who have been left behind and unable to gain access to life-saving treatment.

A private burial service will take place immediately at Lakewood Cemetery. The celebration of Jim's life will be held for family only at Wayzata Community Church and live-streamed to the public on Sunday afternoon, November 29th. Jim will be remembered for many accomplishments, but most of all his dedication to his faith, family, and friends.

A life well lived.

Dr. Richard (Dick) B. Stein. Dick is remembered by friends, family, and colleagues as a decent man who treated everyone with respect, fairness, and kindness. He attended MIT and Oxford University both on full scholarship. In 1968 he moved to Edmonton with his wife Sue and young children Ellie and Eric. Once there, Dick helped build the department of physiology at the University of Alberta. He was a professor at U of A for 50 years before retiring in June 2018. Papers from his final projects on Parkinson's Disease are still winding their way to publication.

Dick was proud of his mentorship of generations of neuroscientists. Dick had the vision that multidisciplinary research was needed to answer difficult questions. He co-founded the Neuroscience group now the Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute at the University of Alberta which supports over 150 researchers. His research and inventions have helped thousands with neurologic and mobility challenges.

Dick was also proud of his family. Losing his own parents at age 16, he threw himself into parenting and his family doing fun activities every weekend. As well, he enjoyed ballroom dancing with Sue and wildflower photography. He jogged, rode, or walked to work almost every day of his career. He enjoyed cross country skiing and introduced it to many of the foreign students working with him. Dick and Sue traveled to almost 100 countries and Dick said recently that he had had a good and interesting life.

During the past 2 years, Dick has been limited by Parkinson's Disease and associated conditions. As a resident of the Edmonton General Continuing Care Centre, he has received love and care from the staff on 5AB. They have become our extended family and we thank them for their kindness and devotion. During COVID they have gone over and above risking their own safety to keep our family connected.

An amazing group of former students worked as a team to support Dick and the family over the past 2 ½ years. They enabled Dick to keep walking including outside walks and brought him homemade gluten-free cookies. They helped Sue and Dick create a ballroom dance routine which was presented at the Edmonton General in March 2019. You can watch this inspiring performance at www.thevitalbeat.ca/news/couples-dance-performance-captures-lifetime-love/

The "Dream Team" as we call them have supported our family until Dick's last day and beyond. Thank you to Dirk Everaert, Su Ling Chong, Jaynie Yang, Jacques Bobet, and Kelvin Jones.

When COVID entered the Edmonton General, Dick was isolated from friends and family for 3 months. We wondered if he would survive. But he did survive, never complaining. He relished his phone as a connection to the outside world. The lockdown lifted on July 23 and we had three months together again taking Dick outside for visits. When COVID again hit the EGCCC, Dick became ill within days and tested positive for COVID. He fought for several days longer than expected but succumbed on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.

We look forward to having a ceremony to celebrate his life sometime in the future and will announce closer to the time.

Thinking of others until the end, Dick's wish in recent years was to create a bursary to support future neuroscientists. Donations may be made to the "University of Alberta" noting your donation is made in memory of Dr. Richard Stein to support the Richard B Stein Neuroscience Graduate Student Fund.

Emery Elmer Jones, Jr. Born October 6, 1936, at home in Victor, CO. Emery unexpectedly passed peacefully on November 1, 2020 at 1:00 p.m. after a lengthy battle with Atypical Parkinson's complications. Emery worked on ranches and later became a land surveyor in Colorado through 1959. In 1960 Emery and his first wife, Ruth (passed in 1999), moved to California and eventually to Novato, CA. Emery was employed as a hydro surveyor for the Army Corps of Engineers for 23 years. In 1982, he and Ruth opened the Oliva Loma 40 Horse Boarding Stable, which closed in 1996. Emery is survived by his wife, Nancy; and Nancy's daughter, Wendy Albrecht; brothers: Howard (passed in 2016), James (Nancy), and Robert (JoAnne); sisters: Betty Waits, Patricia Radman, and Janie Anderson; also, many nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews. Emery will be greatly missed by family and friends. At Emery's request, there will be no service and no memorial.

Richard "Dick" James Heckmann, the former CEO of United States Filter, passed away from complications of multiple system atrophy, a Parkinsonism, at the age of 76 on October 31, 2020, in his home in Rancho Mirage, California.  

Dick is survived by his wife, Wendy Heckmann, and their daughters Mia and Madison. He also leaves behind his ex-wife Mary and their children Tom, Scott, Brock, Todd and Jessica and his nine grandchildren. He is also survived by his son Greg from a prior marriage.

Dick was born in St. Louis, Missouri on December 8, 1943 to Phil and Ruth Heckmann. Dick was a serial entrepreneur even as a child, working to plow snow off driveways in the winter and as a golf caddy in the summer. He planned to be a priest until a jet flew over his head and he felt he was destined to be a pilot instead. He joined the United States Air Force and fought bravely in the Vietnam War in 1965 and then attended the University of Hawaii and completed the Small Business Management Program at Harvard Business School.

He moved to Washington, D.C. where he worked as Associate Administrator for Finance and Investment of the Small Business Administration (SBA), where he was responsible for

small business lending and venture capital investments made by the United States government. He also served as the White House liaison for the SBA under the Carter Administration and was a former director of the Advisory Board of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Dick was the Founder of Tower Scientific Corporation, a prosthetics company, which he sold in 1977. He retired to Sun Valley, Idaho, to ski, and was elected the Mayor of Sun Valley in 1979.

Dick and his family moved to the Palm Springs area and he became a stockbroker. He set the record for highest trade volume in a single day in 1987. He was also Chairman of the Listed Company Advisory Committee of the New York StockExchange and a member of the Exchange's Special Governance Committee.

He founded US Filter Corporation, a water filtration company,in 1990 and embarked on a series of 260 acquisitions aimed at building the world's largest water treatment company. Nine years later, US Filter was acquired by Vivendi SA, an international water products group, for $6.2 billion.

He served as Executive Chairman of K2, Inc., a sporting good company, which he sold for $1.2 billion in 2007. He was Director and owner of Smith Goggles and a founding shareholder of Callaway Golf, Inc. He was the Chairman of Nuverra Environmental Solutions, Inc. He also founded the Heckmann International Center for Entrepreneurial Management, at UC Riverside's Palm Desert Campus.

Dick was also an owner of the NBA Phoenix Suns basketball team. During his first year as a partner, the Suns acquired Steve Nash, and the team shot to the top of the Western Conference standings. Attending the games court side was a great joy to Dick and his family (but sometimes not the referees).

Dick would say his greatest achievement was the close-knit family that he leaves behind. A perfect Saturday afternoon for him would be hanging out with his children, with the grandchildren bopping around, watching a Notre Dame football game. He never missed a t-ball game, soccer game, wrestling match or football game for any of his children and was a great coach himself.

While being a great father, husband, and businessman, Dick also found time to mentor many high school children and young adults. He was very giving with his time and always ready for an in-depth conversation about how to succeed in life. His simple wisdom for teenagers embarking on a college career was to learn how to write effectively, communicate with anyone, read extensively and be comfortable speaking to a large group. His advice for starting a family was just as simple; it will be the best thing you ever did and appreciate every second of it.

Dick will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery next year.

Cheri Renfroe Yousem passed away peacefully at home on October 31st, 2020, after a long and courageous battle with Parkinson's Disease.

From her roots growing up in Lawndale, California to Beverly Hills, Cheri lived a life full of family, philanthropy, and adventure. Aside from spending time with her children and grandchildren, Cheri dedicated her time to various charitable causes that were close to her heart.

Volunteering her services was Cheri's passion, including years spent championing causes through United Hostesses Charities, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, LACMA, and Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

Cheri's other passion was world travel and mountaineering; she spent time exploring some of the farthest reaches of the world and climbing its highest peaks.

Cheri is survived by her sons Jordan (Jessica) and Joshua (Maja), and her three beloved grandchildren, Leo, Connor, and Sadie.

As a young boy on summer break in the 1940s, David Traitel and his beloved quarter horse, Miss Buck, joined a seasoned crew of career cowboys herding cattle in the Sierra Nevadas.

This rugged and novel escapade over several summers in David's early teens, provided grist for myriad nostalgic accounts spun for family and friends over the years. By far, his favorite tale was the story of eating a daily breakfast of whiskey and cornflakes with a crusty, trail-savvy cowboy named Earl. This lifelong divining rod of curiosity led to a wide array of interests, passions and pursuits over 87 years, most notably in business, philanthropy, politics, travel and included an enduring affinity for animals and Western art.

David, the former owner, Chairman and CEO of Nutro Products, Inc. - a high-end pet food company ¬- passed away peacefully in his sleep October 31 at his home in Indian Wells, Calif. He had suffered from Parkinson's Disease.

David was born in New York City on July 8, 1933. His parents moved with David to the Benedict Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1934, before opting for a complete lifestyle change, purchasing a working cattle ranch in Smith Valley, Nev., in the early 1940s.

David attended San Rafael Military Academy (now the Marin Academy) and the University of Nevada, Reno where he was a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity. After embarking on his career, David earned an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.

David joined the Navy in the early 1950s, rising to the rank of ensign, attending Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Naval Station Newport, R.I. David went on to serve as a Public Information Officer in the Navy.

It was in a public speaking class at the University of Nevada, Reno that David met Joan Garner who would become his beloved wife of nearly 65 years, and who survives him. David gave a speech that Joan deemed the best in the class, catching his eye when she raised her hand to indicate her enthusiastic approval in response to a request for a vote by the professor. Joan was a Kappa Alpha Theta at the University of Nevada, Reno. David gave Joan his fraternity pin the year after they met and the couple married in Nevada in December of 1955. They moved soon after to Santa Monica, Calif .

In 1975, with no prior experience in the pet food industry, David purchased Nutro Products, Inc. Founded in 1926 to make dry food for dogs and foxes, David envisioned growing Nutro into a natural, super-premium health food for dogs, a new concept that created an immediate following among professional breeders, kennel owners and vets. Unlike most pet food manufacturers at the time, Nutro bypassed supermarkets, selling its products only at pet stores such as Petco, feed stores and veterinarian's offices.

Nutro became a market disruptor, beginning with the development of an unorthodox formula in 1985 that featured chicken, lamb and rice. In 1990, Nutro was among the first to introduce a single-protein-source food for dogs called Natural Choice, with a lamb-and-rice formula that contained no added chemicals or artificial preservatives. Natural Choice also made food for cats.

By the late 1980s, Nutro expanded, making its products available throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. In 1992, Nutro began making canned food as well as a line of biscuits and treats. Nutro was acquired by Bain Capital in 2006 and, later, by Mars, Inc. in 2007.

In his early career, David worked in public relations for Ramo-Woolridge, the predecessor of aerospace pioneer and giant TRW, Inc. He later joined Electo-Optical Systems (EOS) from 1959-1969, serving as Vice-President of the division purchased by Xerox Corporation. He subsequently served as Executive Vice President of Walker and Lee, Anaheim, Calif., and Chairman of the Board and President of Sunbeam Lighting Corp., Los Angeles, Calif., from 1969 to 1972.

At the time of his death, David was the chairman of Straight Arrow Ventures, a venture capital private equity company based in San Francisco, Calif. He had recently sold his controlling interest in Denver, Colo.-based Boa Technology, a cinching system that replaces lacing for sports brands.

David served as an overseer at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, beginning in 1996, later serving as chairman of the board from 2008-2010 and as a member of the Executive Committee. He was also a member of the Board of Overseers of the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif., as well as a benefactor since 2000 of the San Francisco Opera, where David and Joan in 2008 inaugurated The Great Singers Fund, to provide support in attracting the world's best known singers.

Whether in the form of an opera, a book or a gritty championship battle won by his adored Lakers, David had a fondness for engaging stories. He was the teller of more than a few tales, revered for his turn of a phrase, quick wit and dry humor. In addition to his childhood remembrances of wrangling and cowboys, he regaled family and friends with humorous anecdotes told creatively and with pitch-perfect delivery.

David resided in Pasadena, Calif., for 40 years before moving to San Francisco. He also lived in Indian Wells, Calif., and Glenbrook, Nev.

In addition to his wife, Joan, he is survived by children, Dee Anne (Michael) and David (Lori); grandchildren Shelby, David (Ali) and Marisa; and one great-grandchild.

The actor who is remembered for his participation in various Mexican soap operas suffered from some illnesses such as Parkinson’s and pneumonia

This October 30, the entertainment world is in mourning, since actor Ricardo Blume passed away at the age of 87.

The native of Lima, Peru, whose career took place mainly in Mexico, is remembered for his participation in various soap operas, including ‘Simply María’, ‘Carrusel de las Américas’ and ‘Care with the Angel’, as well as ‘Marimar’ and ‘María la del Barrio’, where he shared the screen with Thalía; as well as more than 60 plays in Peru, Mexico and Spain.

The news was confirmed by the journalist Patricia del Río in the newspaper El Comercio, where he assured that the actor suffered from some diseases such as Parkinson’s and pneumonia.

“ Yes, he passed away. He was very sick, he was 87 years old with Parkinson’s and pneumonia. It was already wrong. We knew it was a matter of hours, and they told us that he had no quality of life, “said Patricia, noting that the actor died in a hospital and was accompanied in his last minutes by his daughter and wife. “He was in the hospital, with his daughter and wife .”

While the National Association of Interpreters of Mexico also shared the news through a message on their Twitter account.

“The #Directive Council and the #Vigilance Committee of @ANDIMexico, communicate the sensitive death of the partner and interpreter Ricardo Blume. Our deepest condolences to his family and friends ”

For his part, Cecilia Blume, the interpreter’s niece, released a message on Twitter.

”My uncle Negro, the last of the Blume Traverso, the one who appeared on TV and was” famous “! a nice family, happy and very united. Today my uncle Freddy, Eddy, Jackie, and my dad met! they will be playing guitar, Cajon, maracas and even spoons, until very late today!“, wrote.

Just 22 and working as a file clerk on Wall Street to support her poetry habit, Diane di Prima turned heads when she mailed in several of her works to City Lights, the legendary San Francisco bookstore and publishing house.

City Lights had just spun the literary world off its axis with the release of Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl,” and it seemed audacious that an unknown poet from Greenwich Village would be seeking the attention of a publisher that had become a citadel for an emerging generation of poets, novelists and deep thinkers.

Curious, Ginsberg and author Jack Kerouac drove to New York to meet her, impressed by her verse and her spunk. The three became lifelong friends and cohorts in the Beat movement, dramatically changing the course of 20th century literature.

Prolific and daring until the end, di Prima died Sunday in San Francisco, said Sheppard Powell, her partner of 42 years. She was 86 and had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

A free spirit who viewed life as a candy sampler of opportunities and pleasures, Di Prima published more than 40 poetry collections, novels and memoirs, championed other feminist authors, was arrested for obscenity, read a fiery one-line poem titled “Get Yer Cut Throat Off My Knife” at the Band’s final concert, once lived at Timothy Leary’s psychedelic commune in upstate New York and was named San Francisco’s poet laureate by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom.

“I wanted everything — very earnestly and totally — I wanted to have every experience I could have, I wanted everything that was possible to a person in a female body,” she explained in an interview with Jacket magazine.

Di Prima was born Aug. 6, 1934, in Brooklyn, N.Y., the lone daughter of an attorney and a school teacher. Her parents had lofty and rigid expectations of their daughter, who was more drawn to the impulses and activism of her maternal grandfather, an Italian immigrant and self-proclaimed anarchist.

She said she began writing when she was 6 and knew she wanted to be a poet by the time she was 14. She attended a distinguished elite high school that drew academic high achievers from the city’s five boroughs and put in two years at Swarthmore College before dropping out and moving to Greenwich Village, then alive with jazz musicians, writers and counterculture artists.

Early on she met with Ezra Pound, the acclaimed poet and critic who was then confined to a psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C. She visited him daily, often over lemonade. And she wrote verse at a furious pace.

Her first collection of poems — “This Kind of Bird Flies Backward” — was followed rapidly by “Dinners and Nightmares,” a collection of short stories, and “Memoirs of a Beatnik,” which became an underground classic for its raw portrayal of the early Beat years.

But it was the multipart epic poem “Loba” that was held in the highest regard by her admirers. First released as a work in progress, the poem was seen by many as the female counterweight to Ginsberg’s “Howl.”

“How was woman broken?

Falling out of attention.

Wiping gnarled fingers on a faded housedress.

Lying down in the puddle beside the broken jug.

Where was the slack, the loss

of early fierceness?

How did we come to be contained

in rooms?”

She also co-founded the Floating Bear, a newsletter that ultimately got her arrested when she published several poems that the government regarded as obscene, including a piece by William S. Burroughs, the elder statesman of the Beat generation. The charges were later dropped.

She raised five children and took pride in being a dutiful mother. When she left a cocktail party early one evening to look after her daughter, she said Kerouac screamed, “Unless you forget about your babysitter, you’re never going to be a writer.”

She disagreed, saying that raising children helped give her the discipline to organize her schedule and set aside time for writing. Husbands were another matter. She was married twice, each ending in divorce.

Di Prima eventually grew weary of New York City and began to roam. She moved to the Catskills, then Leary’s LSD-tinged commune and spent a year traveling the country in a VW bus, reading poetry in storefronts, galleries and universities. She finally landed in San Francisco as the Summer of Love was fading. She never left.

In San Francisco, she became a member of the Diggers, a group of street activists who collected food for the lost souls who wandered Haight-Ashbury. She studied Buddhism, Sanskrit and alchemy. When pressed on her political leanings, she allowed she was likely an anarchist, much like her grandfather. In 2009, she was named poet laureate of her adopted hometown.

“At the root of it, she was a scholar and an off-the-charts genius,” Powell said. “When she got interested in something, she’d want to get to the core of it.”

Her final major collection of poems, “The Poetry Deal,” was published in 2014. As often was the case, City Lights was her publisher.

Di Prima continued to write until weeks before her death, though her arthritis forced her to use a stylus on a cellphone to write. Sometimes, Powell said, she’d dictate her verse, often to him.

She is survived by Powell, two brothers, five children, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Percy Schmeiser, farmer known for fight against Monsanto, dead at 89. Schmeiser is remembered by his son as a dedicated father who loved taking his grandchildren fishing. Schmeiser, who had Parkinson's disease, is survived by his wife, Louise Schmeiser. 

John Schmeiser told CBC News his father died peacefully in his sleep Tuesday afternoon at the age of 89. Schmeiser had Parkinson's disease.

The Saskatchewan farmer became famous in the late 1990s after agrochemical giant Monsanto took him to court. The company had found its genetically modified canola in Schmeiser's field, but he had never paid for the right to grow it. Schmeiser insisted the seeds had blown onto his field in the wind and that he owned them. Monsanto sued him, and in the end, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the farmer had knowingly violated Monsanto's patent. 

As the world media descends on Percy Schmeiser and his battle with Monsanto, neighbours and scientists question the validity of his defence. Schmeiser's son John said the court case was only one part of his life, as it happened when Schmeiser was getting ready to retire. John said he'll remember Percy as a dedicated father, grandfather and businessman. 

"I am privileged to this day to be his son," John said. "Growing up, it was very, very evident right from the beginning about how concerned he was about his community and his family." Schmeiser served on town council in Bruno, Sask., for several years, both as mayor and as a councillor. He also ran a couple of businesses and ran a farm, John said. "We were always busy," John said. "And he always made time to be with family. And when grandchildren started to rise, it just took it to another level for him because he had more children to be around."

Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser’s battle with Monsanto, which went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, has been turned into a Hollywood movie called Percy. Although the movie is endorsed by Schmeiser’s family, there are concerns about its accuracy. Zakreski saw the movie at the Calgary Film Festival with Schmeiser's son, John, and said it was a strange and surreal experience. Though he said the film got more things right than wrong, there were some aspects where the director took artistic license. "The trial was a lot more intense and a lot more dramatic than it was portrayed," he said. "It took place in Saskatoon on a larger scale and it drew an incredible amount of interest. There were media scrums going into and out of court. It was a very high pressure situation."

"He was just an extraordinary person. I haven't met someone like him … an example for us all."

John said memories about his father that stand out are his passion for fishing and sharing his skills. "He would go to great lengths to take his grandchildren, when they were four, five, six years old, he would take them fishing. And he just loved doing that," John said. "For all of us, that was a very, very special thing and it was so important to him." Schmeiser would be filled with pride when he saw his grandchildren catch their first fish, John said. "I don't know who had a bigger smile, [Schmeiser] or one of his grandchildren," John said. "For him, that was just an incredible sense of accomplishment, to see them catch fish."

John said he hopes his father is remembered as that dedicated grandfather, passionate fisher and someone who would do anything to see his community succeed. Schmeiser would be there for his customers at the farm equipment dealership at any time, and even in retirement watched the weather to make sure they had a good harvest, John said. 

Schmeiser is survived by his wife Louise. The two had just had their 68th wedding anniversary on Oct. 2. John said they met at a dance in Bruno, Sask., and lived there their entire lives. Now, Bruno is home for him and his siblings forever, he said. 

In a video recorded in September 2020, the Schmeisers thanked people for their support through the legal battle and for the opportunity to have their story told in a recently released movie called Percy. (Mongrel Media/Vimeo)

Source: Saskatchewan

With Philip J. Hirschkop, he brought Loving v. Virginia to the Supreme Court, which struck down laws against interracial marriages.

“Dear Sir,” began the letter from Washington that found its way to Bernard S. Cohen at the American Civil Liberties Union in June 1963. “I am writing to you concerning a problem we have. Five years ago my husband and I were married here in the District. We then returned to Virginia to live. My husband is white, and I am part Negro and part Indian.”

The letter, from Mildred Loving, went on to explain that when she and her husband, Richard, returned to Caroline County, Va., to live, they were charged with violating Virginia’s law against mixed-race marriages and exiled from the state.

“It was that simple letter that got us into this not-so-simple case,” Mr. Cohen said later. The not-so-simple case was Loving v. Virginia, which Mr. Cohen and his co-counsel, Philip J. Hirschkop, eventually took to the Supreme Court. In a landmark unanimous ruling in 1967, the court said that laws banning interracial marriage, which were in effect in a number of states, mostly in the South, were unconstitutional.

Mr. Cohen died on Monday at an assisted-living center in Fredericksburg, Va. He was 86.

His son, Bennett, said the cause was Parkinson’s disease.

The Lovings had married in 1958. Five weeks later they were in their home in Caroline County when the county sheriff and two deputies burst in and arrested them. They pleaded guilty to violating the state’s Racial Integrity Act and were sentenced to a year in jail; a judge, Leon M. Bazile, suspended the sentence on the condition that they leave the state and not return together for 25 years.

By 1963 that restriction had begun to chafe, since they had relatives in Virginia and Ms. Loving missed “walking on grass instead of concrete,” as she put it. A relative noticed her distress.

“I was crying the blues all the time, so she said, ‘Why don’t you write Robert Kennedy?’” she recalled in a 1992 interview with The New York Times. “She said that’s what he’s there for.”

Mr. Kennedy was the attorney general at the time, and Ms. Loving did indeed write to him, asking if the national civil rights legislation then being formulated would provide any relief. Mr. Kennedy in turn suggested she write to the A.C.L.U., where Mr. Cohen was a longtime volunteer.

Mr. Cohen acknowledged that he was not particularly well versed in the relevant areas of law. He faced other obstacles as well, not the least of which was Judge Bazile, whose rulings in the case included this oft-cited declaration: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and He placed them on separate continents, and but for the interference with His arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages.”

He began by filing a motion to set aside the sentence, but Judge Bazile took no action on it for months; the Lovings became concerned that they’d been forgotten. But in 1964 a law professor introduced Mr. Cohen to Mr. Hirschkop, who had only recently graduated from law school but knew civil rights litigation. He helped steer the case onto a path that eventually brought it to the Supreme Court, where, Mr. Hirschkop said in a phone interview, he argued that the Virginia law was a violation of the equal protection clause of the Constitution and Mr. Cohen argued that it was also a due process violation.

“Under our Constitution,” Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in finding in their favor, “the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State.”

Bernard Sol Cohen was born on Jan. 17, 1934, in Brooklyn. His father, Benjamin, was a furrier, and his mother, Fannie (Davidson) Cohen, was a homemaker.

He grew up in Brooklyn and graduated from the City College of New York in 1956 with a degree in economics. He graduated from Georgetown Law School in 1960.

Bennett Cohen said that, after the Loving case, his father did a lot of work in environmental law. In one case, he said, “the Jewish boy from Brooklyn represented some Christmas tree farmers whose whole crop of Christmas trees was destroyed by acid rain.” That lawsuit, he said, forced nearby power plants to reduce their pollution.

From 1980 to 1996, Mr. Cohen served in the Virginia House of Delegates, where among his accomplishments were measures that restricted smoking — a hard sell in a tobacco state like Virginia. Over the years, the story of the Loving case was told in a 1996 Showtime movie; the 2011 HBO documentary “The Loving Story,” directed by Nancy Buirski; and the 2016 feature film “Loving,” based in part on that documentary.

Richard Loving was killed in a car accident in 1975. Mildred Loving died in 2008.

In addition to his son, Mr. Cohen is survived by his wife of 61 years, Rae (Rose) Cohen; a daughter, Karen Cohen; and three grandchildren.

In 1994, when Mr. Cohen received a distinguished service award from the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, he gave an acceptance speech in which he lamented that public opinion of lawyers had turned negative, focusing on a few big-dollar civil verdicts and stereotyping anyone seeking redress in the courts as being part of an overly litigious society.

“There seems to be months of trial time available for Pennzoil to sue Texaco and for Polaroid to sue Kodak,” he said, “but cluttering the court with everyday people has become bad form, bad habit, bad business.”

He worried, he said, about the chilling effect.

“In a society of laws, driven by centers of economic and financial power,” he said, “if the courts are not available for the average person to seek justice, then the average person will not receive justice.”