When Minnesota along with Blue Cross and Blue Shield took on the tobacco industry a quarter century ago in a landmark lawsuit, Ramsey County District Judge Kenneth Fitzpatrick needed a special master to review thousands of documents from tobacco firms to determine what to allow in court.
Fitzpatrick's choice: attorney Mark W. Gehan Jr., a leader in the Ramsey County and Minnesota bar associations, whose reputation was that of an honest and skilled litigator. But Gehan joked he was chosen because he was "the least objectionable."
Gehan, 76, of St. Paul died June 21 following a cancer diagnosis and a fall resulting in injuries, said his son, Mark H. Gehan.
Roberta Walburn, one of the lead attorneys suing tobacco interests, said documents Gehan ordered to be disclosed showed the industry had suppressed evidence that smoking causes cancer and other illnesses. The case was settled in 1998 with a $7 billion payout by the tobacco industry.
Gehan "was scrupulously fair," Walburn said.
A lifelong St. Paul resident, Gehan attended St. Thomas Military Academy and graduated from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Minnesota Law School. His grandfather, Mark H. Gehan, was mayor of St. Paul from 1938 to 1943, and his father, Mark Sr., was a patent lawyer for 3M Co.
Gehan sang and played guitar in an amateur band that performed in coffee houses in the 1970s, recalled Louis Bartholome, a psychologist and band member. Another friend, Dan Aberg of Sanford, N.C., said Gehan was a strong opponent of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, while Aberg, who enlisted in the Marines, supported the war. But they stayed friends and Gehan was best man at Aberg's wedding.
Gehan became a Ramsey County prosecutor in 1971 before joining the St. Paul law firm of Collins, Buckley, Sauntry & Haugh, where he finished his career in 2014. He considered himself a generalist, with clients including the St. Paul Police Federation and the St. Paul Red Cross.
