For a number of years I practiced law with a fine man and terrific lawyer named John Sullivan. He was old enough to be my father and is now deceased.

He was one of Missouri’s outstanding probate lawyer and for someone who graduated law school in the 1950s had this exceedingly rare, if not unique, distinction:

He took over his mother’s law practice, something he spoke of with pride.

As a father of daughters, I liked being able to say that I worked with a guy who took over his mother’s law practice — something that maybe is becoming more common today.

St. Louis Police Chief Dan Isom was up to see us yesterday, and spoke on a broad range of topics.

One of the reporters asked him what had brought him to police work.

He nonchalantly noted that his sister had become a police officer first, and that as a result he took an interest.

Indeed, Dana Isom is a well regarded officer in the Juvenile Division, working on gang related matters.

That experience has to be good for the prospects of women in the department — good for the entire department and the city, too, to be able to say our chief of police followed in his sister’s footsteps.