Chief Justice P. Harris Hines gives the State of the Judiciary address at the State Capitol on Feb. 22, 2018. He died in November 2018, two months after retiring. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

The University of Georgia School of Law plans to honor the late Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice P. Harris Hines with a teaching and scholarship program called the “Be Kind Fund,” which already has about $50,000 in contributions.

Law Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge delivered the news Thursday evening at a reception for the Georgia Council of Superior Court Judges, gathered in Athens for an annual continuing legal education event.

The fund will be used to bring in judges in residence to teach in memory of Hines, who was known for telling lawyers to be kind, as well as for showing kindness himself to everyone from colleagues on the bench and bar to people on the street and servers in restaurants bringing him his favorite iced tea—half-sweet, half-not.

In addition to the judges-in-residence program, the Be Kind Fund, will support student fellowships in a judicial setting—preferably the Georgia Supreme Court—and provide scholarship aid for students, according to Heidi Murphy, UGA Law's communications director.

The idea and the initial endowment for the fund came from the school's Board of Visitors, whose members have contributed $50,000 already and plan to raise more, Murphy said. The law school's Office of Advancement will continue accepting contributions to the Be Kind Fund.

Hines had served as a member of the law school's Board of Visitors since 2009. Hines was not a UGA graduate—he went to Emory University law school—but he called himself a “Bulldog by proxy,” Murphy said. Hines was a regular at Georgia football games and, at the time of his death, he had plans to go to one that coming weekend.

Hines was killed in a car crash in November 2018, just two months after his retirement at the age of 75, leaving behind his beloved wife of nearly 50 years, Helen, a daughter, a son, a daughter-in-law and son-in-law and four grandchildren.

Hines often talked about the joy and terror of watching his son Hap Hines as a kicker for the UGA Bulldogs. He also liked to share his son's answer to the question of how to handle fear. “Dad, you just play through it,” Hines had said, quoting Hap.

Hines used the quote from his son in his advice to new lawyers when the Supreme Court held oral arguments in Athens in 2017. He also admonished the new lawyers to be kind.

“Anyone who knew Harris knew how generous, how thoughtful, how genuinely kind he was,” former Gov. Nathan Deal—also a lawyer and a former judge—said in eulogizing Hines. “He was the type of person you couldn't help but like—something most lawyers would love to be.”

Chief Justice Harold Melton called Hines a “giant of a man” and a dear friend and mentor in a special statement released after Hines died. Presiding Justice David Nahmias read the statement at oral arguments the following morning, to spare Melton the burden. But they both wept at these words: “Because of the love he so freely extended to others, he was loved and cherished by every member of this court, by our staff, and by just about every person who ever met him.”