Longtime area lawyer Irving Saul dies at 81

Services have been set for 11:30 a.m. today at Temple Beth Or in Washington Twp.

DAYTON — Irving I. Saul, a longtime area lawyer who won a $2.2 million judgment against the city of Dayton for a police-shooting victim’s widow, died Friday, Nov. 26. He was 81.

Funeral services will be today at 11:30 a.m. at Temple Beth Or, 5275 Marshall Road, Washington Twp.

“He was a man of absolute integrity and the best lawyer I have ever seen for developing the facts of a case,” U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice said Monday.

A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Mr. Saul was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1952.

Rice said that in later years Mr. Saul would take only a few cases a year, but chose ones that appealed to his sense of justice.

In what was arguably his most famous case, Mr. Saul represented the widow of James Urseth, a New Carlisle man killed by Dayton and Kettering police during a drug raid in 1983. Urseth, who was not the target of the raid, was shot 16 times at an East Dayton home where he was visiting a friend.

Mr. Saul won a $3.5 million judgment, which was reduced later to $2.2 million.

Mr. Saul is survived by his wife of 60 years, Lita Brown Saul, two daughters and two granddaughters.

Interment, at David’s Cemetery in Kettering, will follow funeral services. Memorial contributions can be made to Hospice of Dayton.

About the Author