Sam Garrison Dies at 65

Sam Garrison, chief Republican counsel to the House Judiciary Committee in the Watergate investigation in 1974, died on May 27 at age 65.

Mr. Garrison had been deputy Republican counsel for the investigation when he was hastily chosen, on July 21, 1974, to replace Albert E. Jenner Jr. as chief counsel. Mr. Jenner was removed by the Republican committee members after he advocated the impeachment of Nixon and helped write a 306-page summary of supporting evidence...

Mr. Garrison graduated from the University of Virginia in 1963 and received his law degree there in 1966. After three years as an assistant Virginia commonwealth attorney (or prosecutor), Mr. Garrison was elected as commonwealth attorney for Roanoke. In 1971, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew chose him as his liaison to Congress.

After Nixon’s resignation, Mr. Garrison returned to Roanoke to practice law. In 1980, he was sentenced to a year in prison for embezzling $46,000 from the bankruptcy account of a mobile home company, which he was representing. He was released after four months. Although he was disbarred after his conviction, Mr. Garrison’s law license was reinstated in 1993.

By the early 1980s, Mr. Garrison had announced that he was gay and soon became active in the gay rights movement.