Kellams remembered as a judge who sought balance between his faith and justice
It was 22 years ago when a mix of community leaders that included Christian ministers, a financial adviser, a Catholic priest, the Dalai Lama's oldest brother, a deputy mayor, a Jewish rabbi, a Muslim imam and a criminal court judge organized an interfaith prayer breakfast in Bloomington.
Marc Kellams was the judge on that committee. He had attended national prayer breakfasts in Washington, D.C., and a few at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. He wanted to bring Bloomington's diverse religious communities together to share stories and to pray.
"I've come away from these meetings knowing there are many people of faith involved in leadership," he said then.
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Kellams, with the Rev. Dan Dix, then-pastor at Southside Christian Church, launched their prayer breakfast project as a way to confirm the connection many leaders have between their spirituality and daily living.
"People are always careful to keep their spiritual life and their professional life separate," Kellams told a Herald-Times reporter in 2020. "On the other hand, people of faith rely on their God for guidance as they go about their lives. Many of us look to God for the wisdom necessary to do our jobs."
Kellams, a Monroe Circuit Court judge for 38 years who retired in 2018, was killed July 29 in a traffic accident on I-465 in Indianapolis. He was 73. His wife, Chris Kellams, suffered a broken arm and was hospitalized a few days.
The couple moved to Johnson County in 2020, to be closer to a daughter and three grandsons who had lost their Greenwood home in a fire. But the couple planned to return to Bloomington to live next summer, according to Father Tom Kovatch at St. Charles Borromeo Church, where Kellams was a deacon.
"He coordinated our ministry to the hospital, the nursing homes and the homebound, which was a pretty significant undertaking. He was doing this while working full time as a judge," Kovatch said. "He loved going out and visiting those who were sick or weren't able to function like they once did."
He said Kellams helped serve mass and delivered inspiring homilies. He counseled people struggling with grief, hopelessness and addiction and visited people serving decades in prison.
Like the scales of justice, he balanced roles of judge and deacon.
"He would share with me generalities of what he had witnessed in the courtroom, and I think his view was very Catholic there, too, as he was always trying to help people," the priest said. "Sometimes, putting a punishment on somebody may be a chance to help them turn around and at the same time protect society. I see his job on the bench and his job here with us as being similar."
He and Kellams discussed the political divide in America and the need to return to compromise and listening to both sides. Kellams was a Republican in a liberal-leaning county that doesn't elect many Republicans. He never lost an election.
"He was one of the few that could bridge that divide, and said, 'You know father, now that I'm retired, there likely will never be another Republican on the bench here."
Kovatch said Allen Funeral Home in Bloomington is handling arrangements, which will include a funeral mass at St. Charles Church.
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Indiana Supreme Court Justice Loretta Rush said she and her supreme court colleagues are mourning the loss of a man they all knew and respected.
"I was a trial court judge 24 years before this, and I've known Marc all this time," she said. "He was at the top level of what we all should aspire to be, and for him to die like this … we are just devastated. We are reeling."
She said Kellams mentored other judges and was a volunteer for the Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program, where lawyers counsel and advise fellow lawyers suffering mental, physical or substance abuse issues.
Retired Indiana University Maurer School of Law professor Alex Tanford knew Kellams as a fellow instructor.
"His humility and his deep compassion for the poor, the suffering and the downtrodden were his most obvious feature," Tanford said. "He was a devout man who lived life in Christ's image — caring for the sick, bringing communion to Catholics in nursing homes, and running a prison ministry on behalf of the Indianapolis diocese."
Early in his career at IU, Tanford and Kellams both taught trial advocacy classes. "I had a student come and tell me they were switching from my section to Marc's. I asked why, and the student said after some hemming and hawing, 'Judge Kellams is nicer than you are.'"
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-9567.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Former Monroe County judge killed in I-465 crash balanced God, justice
