Thu, Nov 26 2009
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Published July 09, 2009 03:39 pm - Joseph Humpolick’s desire to practice law began 47 years ago when the Painesville native read a book about Abraham Lincoln. JOSEPH HUMPOLICK Passion for the underdog drives public defender By SHELLEY TERRY - Staff Writer - sterry@starbeacon.com Star Beacon ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — Joseph Humpolick’s desire to practice law began 47 years ago when the Painesville native read a book about Abraham Lincoln.
His fourth-grade teacher gave him the book after he watched, “Young Mr. Lincoln,” (1939) starring Henry Fonda and Alice Brady, on television with his father. “My teacher, Mrs. Mendoza, saw me differently than any other teacher I had before, who all thought I was learning disabled,” he said. “She felt nobody knew how to reach me. She felt I was misunderstood. I was a good kid who wasn’t turned on to school because no teacher was willing to teach me what I wanted to learn.” Mendoza gave young Humpolick history and science books to read — things he was interested in. “Bingo! I was turned on to learning,” he said. “She wrote in my report card that I had ‘an insatiable desire to learn.’ My grades shot up.” She encouraged him to set goals. He decided to become a lawyer. Today, Humpolick, 57, celebrates 30 years in the Ashtabula County Public Defender Office. President Lincoln’s black and white photograph sits in a prominent place in his office, along with many other Lincoln memorabilia. When he goes to Washington D.C., and he tries to go frequently, he always takes time to visit the Lincoln Memorial. “When Martin Luther King had his march on Washington my dad put me in front of the TV and said, ‘Joey watch this. This could be history,’” Humpolick said. “We watched the ‘I have a dream’ speech live. I think of it whenever I go to the Lincoln Memorial.” The 1960’s cartoon character, Underdog, as well as photos, boxes of research notes and books fill his office, which can be described as pleasantly cluttered. “I may need that again some day” could be his motto, although the Internet has made his job a lot easier, he said. Humpolick kept his first science book (from second grade) to remind him of how far he’s come from school days when his classmates teased him because of his terrible handwriting and a speech impairment, which he still has today in a much milder form. Some teachers and a school principal misjudged him, too. For example, during an eighth-grade assembly, Humpolick asked a guidance counselor what classes he had to take to be a lawyer and he got soundly laughed at by the other students. “I was called a ‘retard’ a time or two,” he said. “A guidance counselor at Riverside (High School) called me into his office just before I graduated and told me that I shouldn’t think about college let alone law school. He didn’t think I was smart enough.” The day Humpolick passed the bar exam, a former principal called and apologized. “The greatest phone call I ever got,” he said. “Apology accepted.” 
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