Donald N. Rothman, a retired trial attorney who was a force in regional arts and theater groups, died of respiratory failure Monday at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. The Broadmead resident was 86.
After helping to found Center Stage in 1963 and move it to its Calvert Street home in the 1970s, he went on to become board president of the Baltimore School for the Arts and was an Everyman Theatre adviser at his death.
"Donald was a fabulous leader and a driving force behind Center Stage in its infancy," said television personality Rhea Feikin, one of the theater troupe's original players. "He had such enthusiasm for the theater and a deep knowledge of how it worked."
Born in Baltimore and raised on Bryant Avenue, he was a 1939 City College graduate and earned a degree at the Johns Hopkins University, where he acted in student theater and community productions. He served in the Navy as a lieutenant commander aboard a submarine chaser in the Atlantic and Pacific during World War II.
After the war, he was accepted at two institutions - Harvard Law School and the Yale School of Drama. He chose law and attended on the G.I. Bill of Rights.
"He was charismatic and magnetic in front of a jury," said his son, Thomas E. Rothman, chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, which is the parent company of 20th Century Fox Film and Television. "In his work, he combined both his passions - law and the theater."
In 1953, he become a founding partner of what is now Gordon Feinblatt Rothman Hoffberger and Hollander. He was chairman of the firm's litigation department for more than 35 years. Colleagues said he was one of the most sought-after litigators in Maryland. He was a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
"He was warm, personal, caring and nurturing to the younger members of the firm," said Herbert Goldman, a law partner.
Mr. Rothman handled zoning issues and commercial litigation, and represented movie exhibitors on obscenity and censorship cases including the 1967 film I Am Curious (Yellow).
"He was a master. His ability with words and with thought was remarkable," said Zelig Robinson, another law partner. "Donald would become impassioned on behalf of a client or a cause. He was one persuasive guy."
In the early 1960s, the Jewish Community Center's drama program was shutting down, and he feared its popular director, Edward Golden, would leave town. He gathered a group of theater lovers, raised $19,000 and leased a Preston Street fraternal hall. They named their venture Center Stage.
