Robert A. Welsh Jr. saw generations pass through Orleans District Court in the 35 years he was its presiding justice.
“It’s life in the raw,” Bob told the Cape Cod Times when he retired in 2008. “I can’t think of anything I’d rather do with my life then spend it down here in this Outer Cape district court.”
Bob died of cancer on June 11, 2025. He was 87.
Courtroom denizens and family members remember him as a patient, humble man who took a scholarly approach to the law.
Bob was the third generation Welsh to preside over courtrooms in Provincetown and Orleans. His son, Judge Robert Welsh III, is the fourth. “Obviously, I’m biased, but he was a very outstanding judge,” he said. “And he loved his community.”
“You’ve got a good heart, but you just go astray, as we all do in some way,” Bob told a repeat offender at a hearing right before his retirement. “It would be a wonderful retirement present to see you straighten out.”
Bob was born on Feb. 10, 1938 to the late Robert and Alma Welsh. His Provincetown roots started with his grandfather, Walter Welsh, who sold ice to fishermen before becoming a judge. Bob graduated from Provincetown High School in 1955 and from Holy Cross College in 1959. After earning his law degree at Boston College in 1962, he married Natalie Lawler. “They really never left each other’s side,” his son said. Their marriage lasted nearly 63 years.
In the mid-’60s, after he served as a judge advocate general in the Army, Bob returned to Provincetown to open a general law practice off Bradford Street with attorney Maurice Goldman, a “well-known character,” said his daughter, Anastasia Welsh Perrino. “In those days, lawyers didn’t really specialize. They just basically helped people in the community who came off the street with a legal problem.” He enjoyed the diversity of his clientele, she said, and had fond memories of the fishermen and artists that he encountered.
In the winter, when money was scarce, he sometimes accepted payment for his services in fish.
In the summers, Goldman was both an attorney and an aquarium owner, said Anastasia. When winter came, he would move some of the animals to the law office. “When I was a child,” she said, “I was always terrified of going in there because there was an alligator in the bathtub.”
In the late ’60s, Natalie persuaded Bob to move the family out of Provincetown and its harsh winters, and they settled in Dennis. He became the first executive director of Legal Services of Cape Cod and the Islands, which represents people unable to afford an attorney. He later formed the law firm Staff and Welsh and served as town counsel for Provincetown, Dennis, and Mashpee. He was a founding member of the Nauset Workshop, now known as Cape Abilities.
In 1973, when his father decided to retire from the bench, Bob told him he planned to apply for his position. His father said he didn’t think Bob would get the job and advised him not to apply.
Bob applied anyway, if only to get his “name in the paper and a little publicity,” his father said in an interview with Betty Richards for the Tales of Cape Cod Oral History Collection.
Both father and son were surprised when he was nominated as Welsh’s successor.
At Bob’s swearing-in ceremony, a reporter asked him if his son Robert Welsh III would continue the family tradition and become an attorney or a judge.
“And he said, ‘Well, how about my daughter?’ ” said Anastasia, now the Barnstable County register of probate.
He didn’t try to direct his kids down any particular path, his son said. But both children saw his dedication to his work. “He always thought it was a noble profession,” said Anastasia, “and he always felt that you can really help somebody in the legal profession, just like you can help people as a doctor.”
Bob was a scholar of anything he could get his hands on, a deep reader of philosophers like Thomas Aquinas, and a eucharistic minister at the Holy Trinity Parish in Harwich.
For a Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly article, a reporter asked him about his outside interests.
“Family,” he replied.
He rarely missed a child’s sports event, recital, or graduation, and the same was true for his grandchildren. Not much in his private life would surprise people. “Sometimes the public persona is different from the private persona,” said his daughter. “In his case, it was not.”
Bob is survived by his wife, Natalie Welsh of Dennis; his sisters, Mary Welsh of Manhattan Beach, Calif. and Alma Welsh of Provincetown; his children, Anastasia Welsh Perrino and husband Thomas Perrino of Dennis, Robert A. Welsh III and wife Lynne Welsh of Sandwich, and James D. Welsh and partner Shannon Murray-Thorpe of Plymouth; his grandchildren, Andrew, Matthew, Madison, and Robert; his step-grandchildren, Danielle and Alexandra; and his nephews, Evan Swanson and Joshua Grandel. He was predeceased by his brothers, Walter and Charles Welsh, and his sister Ann Claire Welsh.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and directed to head and neck cancer research or to the Jimmy Fund.
