The Virginia Bar Association is saddened at the passing of two longtime members: G. Michael Pace Jr. and Henry "Harry" Ware Jr.

G. Michael Pace Jr.

Mr. Pace served as VBA president in 2008 with energy, vision and distinction and as an advocate for education. He died Jan. 8 at age 66.

A resident of Salem, Virginia, Mr. Pace created the Rule of Law Project under the VBA umbrella. The project, since spun off to a stand-alone entity under the Center for Teaching the Rule of Law at Roanoke College, is a web-based resource for teaching the underpinnings of democratic ideals with the help of lawyers and judges who volunteer to go into schools.

He practiced at Gentry Locke in Roanoke, where he was managing partner from 1999-2012, and retired from there to devote more time to the Rule of Law Project and to serve as general counsel for Roanoke College.

In 2013, Mr. Pace received the VBA's highest honor, the Gerald L. Baliles Distinguished Service Award. By then, the project he created and implemented after a dinner-table discussion with his daughter had become a model for civic education not only in Virginia but in the United States and other countries.

After the initial school introduction of the project in 2009, then-VBA Executive Director Guy Tower said, "The tradition of The Virginia Bar Association has been one of promoting professionalism and community involvement, and the Rule of Law Project has been a great example of that."

Mr. Pace joined the VBA in 1986.

His bar service included a term as president of the Roanoke Bar Association in 2000-2001.

Read Mr. Pace's obituary.

Henry "Harry" N. Ware Jr.

Henry "Harry" N. Ware Jr., longtime attorney with Spotts Fain PC, died Jan. 2. He was 69.

Mr. Ware joined the VBA in 2001 and chaired the Corporate Counsel and Civil Litigation sections. He also had been a member of the VBA-affiliated Boyd-Graves Conference since 2009.

An attorney for 40 years, Mr. Ware spent 20 of them with Spotts Fain in Richmond. Earlier, he was with McGuireWoods LLP and then co-founded a law firm. He was a shareholder with the firm and became senior counsel in 2022.