Julian L. Lapides is an American politician who served for 31 years in the Maryland General Assembly

Maryland General Assembly

The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is a bicameral body. The upper chamber, the Maryland State Senate, has 47 representatives and the lower chamber, the Maryland House of Delegates, has 141 representatives...

. Known to his friends and colleagues as "Jack", Lapides was often called the conscience of the Maryland State Senate

Maryland State Senate

The Maryland Senate, sometimes referred to as the Maryland State Senate, is the upper house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland...

.http://archive1.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/refserv/bulldog/bull97/html/bul11-5.html

Biography

Born in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, on September 17, 1931, Lapides attended Baltimore public schools and graduated from the Baltimore City College

Baltimore City College

The Baltimore City College , also referred to as The Castle on the Hill, historically as The College, and most commonly City, is a public high school in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. The City College curriculum includes the International Baccalaureate Programme and emphasizes study in the classics...

 high school in 1949. He attended The Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

 and then Towson State College(now Towson University

Towson University

Towson University, often referred to as TU or simply Towson for short, is a public university located in Towson in Baltimore County, Maryland, U.S...

) where he got his B.S. degree in 1954. After two years in the United States Army, Lapides was accepted at the University of Maryland Law School where he earned his LL.B., in 1961. Lapides was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1965. http://archive1.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/002400/002419/html/msa02419.html

General Assembly

Senator Lapides was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1962, in 1966 he won his seat in the Maryland Senate where he served until 1994 when redistricting caused him to lose the district he had served for 28 years. While in the Senate he chaired the Joint Budget and Audit Committee and the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics. He was a member of the Budget and Taxation Committee and the Public Safety, Transportation, Economic Development & Natural Resources Subcommittees. Lapides was also a member of the Capital Budget Subcommittee, Pensions Subcommittee, the Legislative Policy Committee and several other subcommittees and task forces.

Civic and political affiliations

Lapides was a contributor to and a member of the Maryland State Arts Council, past president of Baltimore Heritage, the American Antiquarian Society

American Antiquarian Society

The American Antiquarian Society , located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and national research library of pre-twentieth century American History and culture. Its main building, known also as Antiquarian Hall, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark...

, the Peale Museum

Peale Museum

The Peale Museum, also known as the Municipal Museum of Baltimore, was a museum of paintings and natural history, located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It occupied the first building in the Western Hemisphere to be designed and built as a museum. The Peale Museum was created by Charles Willson Peale...

, the Baltimore Museum of Art

Baltimore Museum of Art

The Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, was founded in 1914. Built in the Roman Temple style, the Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Founded in 1914 with a single painting, the BMA today has 90,000 works...

 and the Walters Art Gallery. Victorian Society in America. He is a life member of the NAACP, past President of the Maryland Kidney Foundation, Regional vice-president of the National Kidney Foundation

National Kidney Foundation

The National Kidney Foundation, Inc. is a major voluntary health organization in the United States, headquartered in New York City...

 (1970–72).