Robert Taylor, a U.S. attorney and soccer dad

Robert Maxwell Taylor was a lot of things to a lot of people: proud soccer dad who attended all his daughters' games; aficionado of life's finer things; a man whose messy desk belied an eye for beauty and design; and a federal prosecutor whose sense of fair play and honor elevated him among other members of the bar.

Mr. Taylor, 59, a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, died of leukemia May 30. He was known as a man of such integrity that even lawyers he faced in court had nothing but good to say about him.

"He was the consummate gentleman and straight-shooter," said attorney Jeff C. Jones, who opposed Mr. Taylor in a tort-claim case against the government years ago. "If he told you something, you could take that to the bank."

Former U.S. District Magistrate Judge Gene Wilson, who met Mr. Taylor when the two joined the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1975, said Mr. Taylor's reputation for integrity was well-known. Mr. Taylor was an unflappable professional with a pleasant and prepared courtroom presence, Wilson said. He never said a bad word about anyone, and "if he told you something, it was true."

"The people of the United States have lost a wonderful lawyer," Wilson said.

Mr. Taylor, the son of a surgeon, was born in St. Louis and grew up in Northern California. He graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta and earned his law degree from Boston University Law School in 1973.

Mr. Taylor passed the Washington State Bar exam the same year and began his legal career with the state Attorney General's Office, where he spent time in the criminal division but gained his expertise in civil law. Many of the area's most important federal building projects — including Naval Station Everett, the Sumas border crossing and the new federal courthouse in Seattle — were handled by Mr. Taylor, said Mark Bartlett, first assistant U.S. attorney.

Mr. Taylor was nationally recognized for his courtroom skills, teaching for many years at the prestigious Trial Advocacy Institute at the University of Virginia, where he won the William J. Brennan Jr. Award, named in honor of the late U.S. Supreme Court justice. He enjoyed teaching and mentoring younger people, especially those of color, and his door was always open to people who sought his counsel, Bartlett said.

Collene Glomstad Taylor, who met the man who became her husband of nearly 30 years when he bought a ticket from the Seattle travel agency where she once worked, called it a "Bob-fix."

"People would come by because they needed his humor, his wisdom or his little kernels of truth," she said. "I've heard more than several people say, 'I just needed my Bob-fix.' "

Mr. Taylor, who was also known for his love of food and cooking, had a sense of interior design so well honed he was asked to decorate the U.S. Attorney's Office in the new federal courthouse on Stewart Street. His own desk, however, was another story.

"I used to go into his office, and it was three feet in paper. He knew where things were, but I don't know how," said former colleague Charlie Pinnell. "When things reached critical mass, he would spend the weekend cleaning it up and then the desk would be clear for a while."

In addition to his wife, Mr. Taylor is survived by daughters Katherine and Alexandra Taylor, both of Seattle; and his mother, Estella Taylor, and three brothers, Ronald, Scott and Stephen Taylor, all of California.

A service for Mr. Taylor will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at St. Joseph's Church, 700 18th Ave. E., in Seattle, with a reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to the Alexandra Taylor Education Fund at Washington Mutual Bank, Broadway Branch, Attn: Lisa Meins, 301 Broadway E., Seattle, WA 98102; or to the Seattle Rotary Service Foundation, 1215 Fourth Ave., Suite 1118, Seattle, WA 98161.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com