Top Anne Arundel zoning lawyer had many local roles
Harry Blumenthal also maintained weekend life in Florida
Harry Blumenthal was wonderful, and he regularly said so himself when asked how he was doing.
It was less of a self- promotion and more of a decision of how he would see his life and the world, his son Ned Blumenthal said. He’d made up his mind to see the good in the world, and believed every problem had a solution.
For more than 40 years, Blumenthal basically managed to lead two lives. Monday through Thursday hewas in Annapolis, working tirelessly for his clients on land use and zoning projects, and from Friday through Sunday, he was at home with his wife and children in Boca Raton, Florida, where he enjoyed playing golf, boating and a good cabernet.
Blumenthal, who racked up so many frequent flier miles commuting with Delta that his daughter said flight attendants welcomed him aboard by calling him the “Flying Colonel” on the intercom system, died on Dec. 22. Hewas 83.
During his career in Anne Arundel County, Blumenthal was an attorney at several different firms, almost always focused on land use and zoning laws, an attorney for the Anne Arundel County Liquor Board, and played a role in many of the major shopping centers in the county, including Annapolis Towne Center, Waugh Chapel, and Annapolis Harbour Center.
Though hewas a force in the courtroom, Blumenthal still managed to make friends with many of his opponents.
Ann Fligsten, former land use attorney and executive director for the Growth Action Network, said that Blumenthal set a good example of “how to disagree without being disagreeable.”
The two were usually on opposite sides of an issue or case, Fligsten said. Though she called him a “toughie,” she said he was always friendly and professional. She called his death a loss to the entire legal community.
State Sen. Ed Reilly, R- Crofton, said he met Blumenthal nearly two decades ago when he was a freshman on the Anne Arundel County Council.
Reilly said Blumenthal patiently helped him understand the complex land use legislation in front of the council, and always gave all the facts and his honest opinion before stepping back to let Reilly form his own. Reilly continued to seek his advice even in recent years from the State House, as the Anne Arundel County delegation sought to overhaul liquor laws. Though he said he didn’t always want to hear what Blumenthal would say, he always appreciated it.
Where he was regarded as a wolf in his field in Annapolis, at home in Boca Raton, his daughter Joanie Richardson said hewas lovingly referred to as “Sheepy.”
He had curly hair when shewas younger, which Richardson said reminded her of a sheep’s wool. The nickname stuck, and for her is fitting for the distinction between how Blumenthal was as a father versus as an attorney.
“My dad, of course, was not the attorney that everyone else got, my dad was funny and hysterical — we were always laughing to the point of pain,” she said. “He lived large because, what else are we doing here? Why are we doing it at all?”
He spent most of his life with Linda Apple feld Blumenthal, whom he met when she was 13 and he was 15. They married in 1961, after eight years of off- and- on dating, and though they were very different, Linda said theywere best friends.
Harry had grown up in an apartment complex in Baltimore, and had never learned to ride a bike, so when it came time for their son to learn she taught Harry to ride alongside him. Hewas a good sport, but Ned caught on first.
They were kindred spirits, traveling the world together, moving all over Anne Arundel County and South Florida, and bringing up their two children and three grandchildren together.
Linda acknowledged that their arrangement — 40 years of extreme commuting — wouldn’t have worked for every couple.
“You have to have the right kind of marriage,” she said. “You have to have the trust of one another.”
Linda said he didn’t consider shifting to practice real estate and zoning in Florida because itwould have meant he had to take the bar exam all over again. But they made the commute and the distance work.
If for some reason, hewas unable to come home to Florida for the weekend, Linda would fly up to join him. And in the summers when the children weren’t in school, they’d all get to be together in Annapolis. She said she enjoyed walking down Main Street while holding his hand to remind everyone in town they were still together.
As they aged and his health deteriorated, Linda said they had to stop golfing and the trips to Maryland were coming to a natural end right around when the coronavirus pandemic began.
Still, his family said he was doing fairly well until June 2020.
Even when they were visiting him in the south Florida rehabilitation facility where he died, Joanie said her father was warm and kind, and still smiling and saying hewas wonderful when she helped him connect with friends via Facetime or Zoom.
Though he was suffering physically, Joanie said he was still trying to get Ned to help him tie up cases and get all his work handled. She said, “He worked his ass off so our family would be good. And we were. Andwe still are.”