Gabriel L.I. Bevilacqua, longtime lawyer and former chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, has died at 75

Gabriel L.I. Bevilacqua, 75, of Philadelphia, longtime lawyer, onetime chairman of the city solicitor’s litigation department, former chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, past president of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation, champion of the Italian American community, volunteer, and mentor, died Wednesday, June 7, of bone cancer at his home in Manasquan, N.J.

Mr. Bevilacqua and his family arrived in South Philadelphia from Italy in 1955, and he spent the next 68 years learning English, winning high school debate tournaments, representing illustrious clients, improving the American legal system, and fighting discriminatory stereotypes of all kinds.

He served as treasurer of the Philadelphia Bar Association and became chancellor in 2004. He was also chancellor of the Justinian Society, and worked from 1973 to 1984 as the Philadelphia solicitor’s chief deputy, head of major trials, and chairman of the litigation department.

He joined the law firm of Saul, Ewing, Remick, and Saul, now Saul Ewing, in 1984, became partner, and focused on commercial litigation and health-care law until he fully retired in 2022. “He made a lasting impact on our firm as vice chair of the litigation department and executive committee member,” former colleagues at Saul Ewing said in a Facebook post.

Rudy Garcia, former chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, said in a tribute: “Gabe was an inspirational leader, a superb lawyer, and an exceptional friend.”

Mr. Bevilacqua’s son, Gabriel Jr., said: “He loved being a lawyer because, as he saw it, whatever lawyer jokes the rest of us had, for him lawyers helped people to solve problems.”

One of the most vexing issues Mr. Bevilacqua encountered was ethnic stereotyping, and he appeared on TV shows and before panels, and wrote editorials for The Inquirer, Daily News, and other publications about the disservice such portrayals create. “Regardless of race, ethnicity, faith, gender or sexual orientation, we must all work together to reject the destructive shorthand of stereotypes,” he said in the Daily News in 2004.

Mr. Bevilacqua was a longtime member of the Order Sons of Italy in America, now the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America, and served as president of its commission for social justice. He was honored by the American Immigration Law Foundation as an “extraordinary immigrant,” and was knighted by the Italian government.

“It’s important that we should get involved to make things better for everybody,” he told the Daily News in 1992.

Mr. Bevilacqua served as chair of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s disciplinary board and sat on many other boards, committees, and panels. He mentored young lawyers, proposed methods to modernize and improve legal institutions, and was recognized for his contributions by Temple University’s James E. Beasley School of Law in 2004.

A friend called him “kind, accepting, with an admirable inner strength” in an online tribute. Mr. Bevilacqua told The Inquirer in 2003: “I really can’t lay claim to anything special. I am gratified for the opportunity that I received.”

Gabriel Louis Bevilacqua was born Feb. 15, 1948, in Pennadomo, Italy. He immigrated with his sister, two brothers, and parents to South Philadelphia when he was 7, and graduated from Bishop Neumann High School, now Sts. John Neumann and Maria Goretti Catholic High School, in 1966.

He had to learn English as a boy but still excelled on his high school speech and debate team. He adopted Ignatius as a middle name during his Catholic confirmation, and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in international relations at St. Joseph’s University in 1970 and law degree at Temple in 1974.

He met 14-year-old Phyllis Brady at a debate competition when he was 16, and they married in 1972. They lived in South Philadelphia for a few years, and later raised sons Gabriel Jr. and Patrick in Northeast Philadelphia.

“I still carry with me that first sight of my wife,” he told The Inquirer in 2003. “She was backlit. She was glowing. She was beautiful.” They moved to Center City in 2017.

Mr. Bevilacqua liked to entertain, cook, and share his signature seafood pasta dish. He was an avid reader of science fiction, liked to putter around in his garden, and walked often with his children and four grandchildren through Rittenhouse Square.

He listened to the Drifters and watched action movies. But his main hobby, said his son Gabe, “was being involved, and sharing his time and energy with others.”

“He was loyal and dedicated,” his wife said.

“Our love for him will be eternal,” said his son Patrick, “and we are thankful for the thousands of moments he created for all of us.”

In addition to his wife, sons, and grandchildren, Mr. Bevilacqua is survived by a sister, brother, and other relatives.

Services were June 14.

Donations in his name may be made to the Breathing Room Foundation, Box 287, Jenkintown, Pa. 19046.