Cato will be 'missed by everyone'

Respected local attorney Robert 'Bob' Cato dies at 67

By Tara Kaprowy

Laurel County is mourning the loss of well-respected attorney and beloved community member Robert Cato, 67, who died Saturday night.

He is remembered very fondly by countless friends.

Senior Judge Roderick Messer was one.

“One of the last times I spoke to him, my family and I had gone to the beach over spring break,” Messer said.. “I told him my little girl had been looking for sand dollars and never did find any. All be darned, three days later, he came in the office and said, ‘I brought these for your little girl.’ That’s the kind of person Bob was.”

Laurel County Sheriff Fred Yaden agreed.

“He was a good friend, good attorney,” he said. “He’ll be missed by everyone who ever knew him. He was a good friend in all respects, as good a friend as I have.”

He was also a super father according to Cato’s son, United States Marine Corps Maj. Pete Cato.

“He was a great dad,” he said. “He was tough but fair. He allowed me to make mistakes and treated me as an adult and as a man. We became very good friends and hunting buddies.”

Pete Cato said his dad was known as the ultimate manly man.

“He was a consummate hunter, fisherman, and a great cook,” he said. “He loved Southern cooking, whether eastern Kentucky or Cajun.”

“He always had something funny to say about his Cajun heritage,” attorney Hugh Richards recalled.

He had other interests, as well.

“He loved motorcycles and sports cars and gadgets and loved to read,” Pete Cato said.

Cato renewed his love of reading while he was undergoing dialysis — he suffered from diabetes and severe kidney problems.

“He was a huge Hemingway fan,” Pete Cato said. “And when he got on dialysis, he reread ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ ‘Moby Dick.’ He was going through all the classics.”

Bob Cato’s great love, however, was being an attorney.

“He believed in the profession of law,” Pete Cato said. “He believed that character and veracity and the professional code of a lawyer was paramount. Sadly, I think that’s probably dying off with his generation and that hurt him.”

Following graduation from University of Kentucky Law School and passing the bar exam in 1966, Cato enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, in which he briefly served as a pugilist. When discharged, he worked for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in Manchester as a condemnation attorney. In 1971, he embarked into the world of private practice, along with Tom Handy.

“I thought the world of him,” Handy said. “When I was prosecuting and he was defending, we always got along great. He was an excellent attorney and good for the people.”

Handy recalled he was with Cato when the two decided to go scuba diving in Mexico “after supposedly learning how to do it in a 10-foot pool.”

“He was always adventuresome,” Handy said. “A big football fan, a big sports fan.”

Indeed, Cato was a high school football player while attending Butler High School in Shively, Ky.

“Bob was an ex-marine, an ex-football player and kind of fit that mold,” Messer explained. “He was one of those people that would initially scare you to death.”

Cato specialized in criminal defense, with his practice located on West Fifth Street. There, he practiced for 44 years.

During that time, Cato was involved in some pivotal cases. He was responsible for disincorporating East Bernstadt and Pittsburg as cities. He represented some members of the Collins family in the Collins-Napier family feud in Clay County.

“There was another court case in Jackson County that actually ended up on ‘60 Minutes,’ which involved the school board being bribed,” Pete Cato remembered.

Though originally from Beaumont, Texas, Cato had a great love for Laurel County.

“He liked the mountains,” Pete Cato said. “He liked the culture and society of Appalachia. He liked the politics. He enjoyed the fact that when you pick a jury in eastern Kentucky, last names mean something.”

Staff writer Dean Manning contributed information to this story.

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