Landon Haynes Roberts, 85, of Givens Estates, formerly of North Asheville, passed away on April 28, 2007. Mr. Roberts is greatly missed by the attorneys and staff of Roberts & Stevens.

Mr. Roberts was born on December 2, 1921, to the late Guy Vernon Roberts and Evelyn Gudger Roberts of Marshall. He graduated valedictorian from Marshall High School in 1936. Mr. Roberts began his college education at Mars Hill College, transferring to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he graduated and had completed one year of law school in 1942. With World War II looming, Mr. Roberts, enlisted in the United States Navy, entered Midshipman's School in New York and was commissioned an ensign on his 21st birthday. He served his country as a naval officer on patrol craft in the Pacific theater for four years, receiving the Appreciation of the President of the United States, signed by James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy on May 12, 1946. At the conclusion of the war, Mr. Roberts returned to law school at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1946, receiving his law degree in 1948.

Mr. Roberts began his legal career in Asheville with the firm of Smathers and Meekins. He soon established a reputation as a leading trial lawyer in Western North Carolina, respected by both his clients and adversaries. Over the years, the law firm became "Meekins, Packer & Roberts", "Meekins and Roberts", "Roberts & Cogburn", "Roberts, Cogburn, McClure and Williams", and then in 1986, the firm merged with "Redmond, Stevens, Loftin and Currie" to become the present firm of "Roberts & Stevens".

Mr. Roberts previously served on the Board of Governors of the North Carolina Bar Association; as President of the Buncombe County Bar Association; as President of the Asheville Civitan Club; as Chairman of the Buncombe County Democratic Party Precinct #17; on the Vestry of Trinity Episcopal Church; as a Trustee of St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation. He was a member of the North Carolina Board of Law Examiners; a permanent member of the Judicial Conference for the Fourth Circuit of the US Court of Appeals; a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers; and a charter member of the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys. In 2005, he was made a Justice Fund Honoree by the North Carolina Bar Association.

He was also a member of Trinity Episcopal Church; the Gleaners Sunday School Class; the Asheville Civitan Club; the Zeb Vance Debating Society; and the Country Club of Asheville.