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The Pennsylvania Bar Association bestowed its highest honor upon H.Reginald Belden ’63 at its annual meeting this year. He received the Pennsylvania Bar Medal, becoming only the eighth recipient of the award in the century-old history of the association.
Belden was nominated by members of the PBA Board of Governors, which awards the medal for significant improvement or outstanding service to the field. The news was kept under wraps until the moment it was announced.
“I was shocked, that was my first reaction,” he says. “Then I felt an overwhelming sense of pride.”
A history graduate, Belden received the Gilbert Nurick Award earlier this year for his dedication and service to the leadership and promotion of the organized bar.
He is a past president of the PBA, also serving on the Board of Governors and House of Delegates. He chaired both the Young Lawyers Division and the Centennial Celebration. Belden was the first chair of the Professional Liability Committee and has headed more than ten PBA committees throughout the years. He was president of the Westmoreland Bar Association in 1986.
A graduate of University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he later served as president of its Alumni Association, Belden is a member of the American College and Westmoreland Academy of Trial Lawyers, a trustee of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Historical Society, and a life fellow of the American and Pennsylvania Bar foundations.
He cites history professors GeorgeHeath and Albert Gendebien ’34 and English professor William W. Watt as significant mentors during his Lafayette experience.
“They were all excellent faculty members,” he says. “They cared about their students.”