Alice "Gail" Clark isn't sure how her life would have turned out had her husband, John, not read up about James Rouse's planned community while attending graduate school at Howard University in the late 1960s. They were living in Washington, where Alice Clark was a schoolteacher. She later would become a school counselor.

"I probably would have stayed in D.C. and retired as a school counselor," Clark said last week.

In 1970, Clark, her husband and their infant daughter, Elizabeth, moved to Columbia. The move to Howard County opened doors that Clark had never considered while growing up in the nation's capital. She eventually went back to school, got her law degree at age 42 and wound up as the county's first black public defender and District Court judge.

Some of those memories came flooding back to Clark last Wednesday afternoon as she sat in her office after finishing her last day on the bench. Clark, who will turn 70 on Feb. 12, is being forced to retire, in accordance with state law.

'I'm ready'"There's some judge in Baltimore who filed a suit [to remain on the bench past 70]. I told someone, 'I certainly hope he doesn't win before I retire,' " Clark said with a laugh. "I'm ready."

Not that Clark went out quietly. On her last day on the bench, she sent a couple from West Virginia to the Howard County detention center for contempt of court. Constance Wesley's husband, Michael, couldn't appear for a DWI charge, she told the judge, because he was out of town on business.

Wesley showed Clark a letter from her husband's employer, and though it wasn't dated, Clark granted a postponement. That's when things got interesting. The trooper who had arrested Michael Wesley on Dec. 3 got up and told Clark that Michael Wesley had been sitting in the courtroom the whole time.

"I said, 'Trooper, don't you need to be a little faster than that? Now is a fine time to tell me. Go out and get him and arrest him if you have to,' " Clark recalled. "When he [Wesley] came back, he tried to get all around it by saying he needed a lawyer. I sent them to jail - five days for him, two days for her.

"I had never seen anything like that. It was a lot of nerve."

Clark said it might have been the most memorable case of her career, which is saying a lot considering she figures she had presided over tens of thousands of cases since being appointed in 1997 by then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening. Over the years, Clark said that she developed a style that "is pretty straightforward," but admits that she has changed with the times.

"A lot has gotten so casual now," she said.

Emotions play on her faceClark also admits that she is not one to sit on the bench without showing emotion.

"Unfortunately, everything has always shown in my face," she said. "Maybe I've thought about it and tried to change, but it probably sneaks out."

In the end, Clark knows, "It's the kind of business where half the people are going to leave unhappy.

"That's why it's so important to try to glean what the facts are, apply the law to the fact and to try to do it without any bias or preconceived notions or whatever."

Not that Clark ever envisioned herself deciding the outcome of cases. She was quite happy being a public defender when she was approached by former Administrative Judge James N. Vaughan about putting her name in for consideration.

"The truth of the matter is, I hadn't ever thought of it," she said. "As you can understand, having worked 20 years as a teacher, I came to this late." She and a friend "used to say, 'We'll be the oldest public defenders.' I guess something like that, when someone asks you, you begin to think about it. You think, 'I can do that and I think I'd enjoy it.' I considered it sort of an honor that he would ask me."

Clark said she wasn't motivated by any pioneer spirit of being the first African-American.

But others have been inspired by Clark.

"She's been really helpful to me, especially in terms of docket management," said Pamila Brown, who followed Clark onto the District Court bench in 2002. "I consider her a wise sage. We're going to miss her."

Attorney Corrie Boulay appeared before Clark in the first case she worked in the county's Domestic Violence Center. She was also part of Clark's final caseload last week.

"She's wonderful," Boulay said. "She's been a real asset to Howard County. I'm glad to have had her on so many of my cases."

"I just really didn't see see it that way," Clark said. "It was a job and I tried to do both of those jobs the best I could have."

Clark's background as a public defender, as well as the seven years she spent in private practice with her husband, prepared her well for the bench, Clark said.

"When I was in private practice, I had a largely civil type of caseload, and when I went to the public defender's office, I got all that experience with criminal [cases], I thought I had a really good, solid background," she said. "The only thing that makes me uneasy is when I'm not sure. But criminal is 80 percent of the docket. And I didn't feel uncomfortable doing any of those."

What Clark enjoyed most was the camaraderie among her fellow District Court judges.

"This is a wonderful place to work," she said. "I've always felt very comfortable here. The other judges are very helpful. The basic rule is, 'If you finish early, you see if anyone else needs help.' It's a very collegial atmosphere."

'I'll go anywhere, any day'While she is officially retired and starting to work on her own "to do list," Clark has filled out the paperwork to become a "visiting" judge throughout Maryland.

"I plan to ingratiate myself to the woman who does these placements and tell her initially, 'I'll go anywhere, any day.' I'll tell her initially I'll go anywhere and do anything and get in her good graces," Clark said. "Isn't it funny, they make me retire and let me come back and hear things," she said. "I guess everybody isn't the same at 70. Lots of judges sit five and six years after they retire. I think anything that keeps you active and involved is probably good for you."

No "Judge Gail" shows in the works?

"Don't I wish," she joked. "Judge Judy makes $8 million a year."

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