Friends and members of the extended federal court family of former chief clerk Walter A.Y.H Chinn gathered yesterday say goodbye to Chinn, who died April 4.

Chinn ran the federal court clerk's office here for nearly 40 years, from 1966 to 2005, longer than any other chief clerk in the history of the United States Judiciary, according to Senior U.S. District Judge Samuel P. King.

"He was an excellent, excellent clerk," King said. "He was the job."

The memorial was held in the courtroom of Chief Judge Helen Gillmor, who presided over the ceremony. Also in attendance were five other District and Bankruptcy Court judges, as well as 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Clifton.

Video screens were set up in two other courtrooms for guests unable to fit into Gillmor's court.

Clifton called Chinn "a public servant in the true meaning of the word,"

He recalled that when he first arrived in Hawai'i in the 1970s as a young lawyer working for 9th Circuit Judge Herbert Choy, Chinn was an enormous help to him.

"Walter and his colleagues in the clerk's office were a truly helpful and welcoming community," Clifton said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Flo Nakakuni said Chinn "would always lend a hand or a back or a shoulder" to those in need.

"He was helpful and courteous to all who came to court," she said.

The clerk's office handles all nonjudicial functions of the federal court system here, including assisting lawyers and the public in filing and accessing court paperwork.

When Chinn took the job, the office had six employees serving two judges. When he retired, the staff had grown to 30 employees, four full-time judges, two senior judges and three magistrate judges.

District Judge David Ezra, who was traveling and could not attend the service, said in a note read by Gillmor that Chinn "set a tone of efficiency and cordiality that remains the hallmark of our federal clerk's office."