By Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 10, 2007

John Richard Ferguson fought hard Sept. 18 to hook the great silver steelhead while fly-fishing on the Kispiox River in British Columbia. Winded, he finally caught his trophy and slid it into the shallows. As a guide measured the fish and as a companion took photos, Mr. Ferguson bent over at the waist and suffered a massive heart attack. He was 73.

Mr. Ferguson, a lawyer for 42 years and an Alexandria resident, loved the outdoors. He took part in environmental causes, especially those involving rivers and fishing. In British Columbia, he helped found the Babine River Foundation to protect a pristine river from logging and damaging fishing practices. In the Washington area, he worked with Potomac Riverkeeper and had a particular interest in the North Branch of the river.

For years, he traveled the world over to fly-fish and each year to British Columbia to spend a week during the salmon spawning season. The recent trip came months after his retirement from the legal profession.

"Earlier in the day, he had said that it wasn't often that a man could choose the way he left the world, and if the choice could be his, he wanted to die with a fly rod in his hands and a steelhead on his line," his wife recounted.

Born Richard Lee Moore in Youngstown, Ohio, he was last of five children. He was an infant when his mother was killed and his father badly injured by a drunk driver. He and another sibling, the youngest two of the family, were put up for adoption. A couple from Cleveland adopted him and renamed him John Richard Ferguson. He grew up in Rocky River, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.

He graduated from Culver Military Academy in Indiana, where he became a skilled horseman and played polo. He attended Duke University on an athletic scholarship, but when an injury ended his track and football careers there, he transferred to Ohio State University. He graduated in 1956 and started graduate school before going into the Marines a year later.

He served as an infantry officer in the 2nd Marine Division's reconnaissance battalion. Among his tasks was carrying secret documents from the United States to Europe with a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. While in the Marines, he also played football and helped operate an underwater salvage company.

Before his discharge as a captain, he attended the Naval Justice School in Rhode Island and tried hundreds of court-martial cases.

He graduated first in his class from Case Western Reserve University Law School in 1963 and worked in Cleveland for several years, practicing antitrust law.

In the early 1970s, Mr. Ferguson joined the Federal Trade Commission in the Bureau of Competition and received a Superior Service Commendation for his work. He later practiced at several Washington law firms, including Baker, Hostetler & Patterson; Pettit & Martin; and Peabody, Lambert & Meyers. He retired as head of litigation from Swidler & Berlin, which merged into Bingham McCutcheon in 2006.

A trial lawyer, Mr. Ferguson specialized in antitrust and trade regulation, winning major cases and making federal appellate law in the areas of vertical mergers, international joint ventures and the Newspaper Preservation Act.

Mr. Ferguson succeeded in his profession despite having severe dyslexia, which was not diagnosed until he was in his 40s, said his wife of 27 years, Janine Harris.

"Every time he picked up a book to read, he had to remind himself to read from left to right. . . . He couldn't spell," she said. "He compensated by creating a huge memory."

Mr. Ferguson also was an avid skier, occasional ski racer and sailor. He was an opera and symphony buff. His garden at his Old Town Alexandria home, with its English roses, was a stop on garden tours.

His marriage to Shirley Ferguson ended in divorce.

Survivors, in addition to his wife of Alexandria, include three children from his first marriage, Lorna Donovan of Columbus, Ohio, Scott Ferguson of San Francisco and Robert Ian Ferguson of Venice, Calif.; two daughters from his second marriage, Brigit Grace Ferguson of Santa Barbara, Calif., and Rachel Anna Ferguson of Alexandria; two brothers; two sisters; and five grandchildren.