Concord’s preeminent real estate attorney, Richard Uchida, has been named vice president and general counsel of his alma mater Colby College.
Uchida, a partner with the law firm Hinckley Allen, has been practicing in Concord for 33 years. He’s a regular presence on behalf of a variety of clients at the zoning and planning boards.
“We joked that they should just have a little adjunct office for me,” Uchida said.
But at the beginning of July, he’ll move to Maine as he takes over as the first-ever general counsel and third-highest-ranking official at the Waterville, Maine, liberal arts college.
“Believe it or not, it does mean I’m leaving Concord,” he said. “I think I’ve got one last great adventure in me, and this is it.”
Uchida also serves as the chairman of the Capitol Center for the Arts board of trustees, a member of the New Hampshire Judicial Council, and co-chair of the New Hampshire Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission. He said he’ll step down from those roles.
Uchida said it was “bittersweet” and “the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in my life” to leave behind Concord, the community whose development he has helped shape.
But over the past decade on Colby College’s board of trustees, included seven years as vice chairman, he’s been eyeing another revitalization in downtown Waterville, Maine, he said.
“There’s just so much going on here that I felt I really wanted to be a part of it,” he said, crediting college President David Greene as “probably the best liberal arts college president in the country right now. To be a part of his administration is such a huge privilege.”
Uchida will serve as the primary liaison between the college’s board of trustees and its administration. Greene said in a statement that he’s been impressed with Uchida’s “deep knowledge, nuanced perspective, and unwavering commitment to the college’s mission.”
“At a time when the college is involved in complex real estate transactions and encountering dramatic shifts in the federal regulatory environment, we will benefit from his wise counsel,” Greene said.
Uchida will take over in his new role July 15, but not before one last zoning board meeting in June, he said.
“After that, I’ll be on my way,” he said.
(Nick Reid can be reached at 369-3325, nreid@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @NickBReid.)