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KEVIN GUTTING

Richard Morse, a prosecutor in the District Attorney’s office in Springfield, offers a remembrance of his father, the Honorable Alvertus J. Morse, during a portrait unveiling and reception at the Franklin-Hampshire Juvenile Court in Hadley on Thursday in memory of the late judge who served on the court from 1997 to 2007.

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KEVIN GUTTING

The Honorable James Collins, left, first justice of the Franklin/Hampshire Juvenile Court, attorney Lisa van Gordon d’Errico and Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan smile at a remembrance by clerk magistrate Christopher Reavey of the late Honorable Alvertus J. Morse who served the Franklin-Hampshire Juvenile Court from 1997 to 2007. Friends and family gathered Thursday at the court in Hadley for the unveiling of a portrait.

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KEVIN GUTTING

Carolyn Morse, second from left, widow of Alvertus J. Morse, helps unveil a portrait of the late judge during a reception Thursday at Hampshire-Franklin Juvenile Court in Hadley. Joining her are, from left, sister-in-law Deborah Morse Pearson, Clerk Magistrate Christopher Reavey, Morse’s son, Richard Morse, and Pearson’s husband, Dana Pearson.

HADLEY - The late Alvertus J. "Jack" Morse, the tough-talking judge with a well-known soft side, would likely have appreciated the installation of his portrait in a juvenile courtroom Thursday. That's the court that had his heart, friends say.

When Morse died Jan. 23 at age 80, there already was a portrait of him hanging at the Northampton District Court, installed in his honor after his 1997 retirement from that court, where he served as presiding judge.

According to Christopher Reavey, clerk magistrate of the Hampshire-Franklin Juvenile Court in Hadley, when Morse hung up his district court robes, his plan all along was to sign on as a relief judge for the juvenile court, which was famously shorthanded.

"He liked hearing the juvenile cases and he was essential to our survival," Reavey said Friday. "He liked making a difference with kids and families and he was very good at it."

Reavey, who said Morse worked in the juvenile court three or four days a week for about 10 years, from 1997 to 2007, was one of several speakers to address a gathering of about 75 people, including many Morse family members who attended the unveiling and dedication of Morse's new portrait.

Reavey said when Morse died in January, it seemed appropriate to launch an effort to remember him in the court where he had devoted so much time. Reavey said before the Hampshire-Franklin Juvenile Court was established, many of the cases that would eventually go to the juvenile court were heard in the district court, by Morse.

And when the effort began to create a juvenile court, Morse was a big supporter of the change, even though he would eventually come to miss the cases the new court took away from the district court docket.

"He was one of the few district court judges who liked care and protection cases," said Reavey, referring to matters involving termination of parental rights. "They are hard cases."

It's the kind of work that is not for the faint of heart - handling family matters that can be heartbreaking - but Morse seemed to thrive on it.

"You go into the district court every day and it's drugs and drunks and domestic violence," said Reavey. "I think Judge Morse felt he could make a difference in people's lives working with kids and families in the juvenile court more than he could anywhere else."

Given his long-standing devotion to two courts, it seems fitting that Morse is immortalized in judges robes in two portraits hanging in Hampshire county courthouses.

"I don't know of another judge that has his portrait hanging in two different courts," said Reavey.