Lord Lowry, the North's former Lord Chief Justice, died in hospital in London yesterday. He would have celebrated his 80th birthday at the end of this month.
In 1982, he survived an IRA assassination attempt when four shots were fired at him in the grounds of Queen's University, Belfast. He was uninjured, but one bullet hit a professor walking nearby, injuring him slightly.
Lord Lowry was born in Co Down in 1919. He was educated at Royal Belfast Academy and Jesus College Cambridge. He became a QC in 1956 and a High Court judge in 1964. In 1971, he became Lord Chief Justice for Northern Ireland, a position which he held until 1988. After his long term as Lord Chief Justice, he moved to London as a Law Lord, retiring in 1994 on his 75th birthday.
In the same year he remarried, his bride being Barbara Calvert QC, who was 17 years his junior. Lord Lowry also has three daughters from his first marriage.
As Sir Robert Lowry, he chaired the Constitution convention at Stormont between 1975 and 1976 - an attempt to set up local political structures in the North. Although the political exercise failed, he won high praise from parties on all sides for his efforts. In 1979, he was made a life peer.
The North's current Lord Chief Justice, Sir Robert Carswell, described Lord Lowry as a "towering figure". "His legal acumen, allied to his natural courtesy and humanity, made him a superb judge on all levels," he said.
The British Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, who visited the North yesterday, also paid tribute to Lord Lowry. "He was a lawyer of high distinction who will be deeply missed," he said.
A special sitting will be held in Lord Lowry's memory at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast on Monday when the Lord Chief Justice, the Chairman of the Bar and the president of the Law Society will deliver tributes.