By Judge Thomas Wyatt, Chattanooga

We blinked our eyes, and Christmas came and went. Soon we will ring in 2024.

My mind, however, is cast upon thoughts apart from the hustle and bustle of the season. 

Of course, the true reason for the season is the greatest gift of all. Second only to that is the gift of family and friends. Let me encourage you to savor the gift of family and good friends this holiday season. Spare not time and hugs. Make sure they know how much you love them.

Before I return to the primary theme of this discussion, indulge me a quick question: Who is the last Tennessee lawyer to win delegates to a national presidential convention? 

Tennessee lawyers have a storied past in presidential politics. Presidents Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk were Tennessee lawyers. (Andrew Johnson was a tailor.) During the last century, Tennessee lawyers Estes Kefauver, Albert Gore, Sr. (Al Gore, Jr. attended law school but didn’t graduate), Howard Baker, and Fred Thompson made legitimate attempts to win their party’s nomination to run for president. Although I didn’t research the issue, I would not be surprised if any of these candidates won delegates to the presidential convention.

But none is the answer to my question. That honor goes to my good friend John McConnell Wolfe, Jr. (Yes, he’s on Wikipedia.)

John was a sole practitioner in Chattanooga. He developed a fervent interest in politics and ran for several offices. He won Democratic primaries to run for Congress from the Third District in 2002, 2004, and 2010 and received approximately one-third of the votes in those general elections in the strongly Republican Third District. John also ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Chattanooga and State Senator.

But the highlight of John’s political efforts was the 2012 Democratic presidential primary, where his opponent, of course, was President Barack Obama. John harbored no pretense that he would unseat President Obama, but he ran in several state primaries to seek a seat at the table at the Democratic convention to voice his anti-big money and pro-peace agenda. John actually did well enough in the Louisiana and Arkansas primaries to win 23 delegates to the Democratic national convention. Believe it or not, John received 41.6% of the votes cast in Arkansas. He seemed to tap into a large number of people who had voted Democrat all their lives but did not want to vote for President Obama.

So, did John and his delegates get to go to the Democratic convention? 

No. The Democratic National Committee has rules requiring any candidate qualifying for the convention to have a campaign organization with verified officers and machinery. John was the ultimate “lone wolf” and was his own campaign organization. Thus, the Democratic leadership refused to credential him and his 23 delegates to attend and participate in the convention.

As John would come to say, “That’s not very democratic, is it?”

Now, back to my original point. John and I have known each other since the age of 17. Except for a couple of years when he attended law school in Memphis, John celebrated Christmas with my family for more than 50 years.

I last spoke to John by phone on his birthday, May 21. We promised to get together more often than we had over the past several years.

But we didn’t. Sadly, I learned just after Labor Day that John died from a sudden heart attack. He had experienced a difficult bout with COVID the year before but seemed to recover. He was diagnosed again with COVID a couple of days before he died.

I very much enjoyed spending this Christmas with my family. While it was still a joyous occasion, a little of the joy was missing. Something akin to a couple of strands of lights missing from a brightly decorated Christmas tree.

John and I weren’t big huggers. But this year, I find myself thinking how I would like to see John at least one more time. If I did, I would hug him.

Don’t let this year go by without hugging your family and friends and telling them how much they mean to you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, to my good friends at the Bureau and the workers’ compensation community.

Rest in peace, dear friend.