At 7 this morning, our eager-for-her-walk dog, dragged me out of the house. As we stepped onto Westview Road, a police car with lights flashing was just pulling to a stop a few houses away. An ambulance, the ladder truck from Branch Street, EMTs and more police all arrived at one-minute intervals. They all stopped in front of the home of Attorney Louis M Saab. As was reported early today, first on WCAP and then on the local newspaper’s website, Attorney Saab passed away this morning at age 81. I’m told he had dined out with friends last night and appeared in good health, just as he did last week when he appeared on behalf of clients before a city board.

Louis was a shrewd businessman and property owner. If you search the titles of a number of buildings in downtown Lowell you’ll find that he owned and sold the same buildings repeatedly. He’d buy a structure when the real estate market hit bottom, sell when prices were at the peak, and then pick up the property again after the bank foreclosed on the new or subsequent owner. During the recent real estate price boom, I was often asked how we would know when prices had reached their peak. My reply, only half in jest, was to pay attention to what Louis Saab was doing with his real estate holdings. When he started to sell, you could be sure the market was about to begin its plummet. For all his involvement in real estate and finance, however, Louis always seemed happiest in the First Session of the Lowell District Court, shuttling between the prosecutors and his clients and the bench, making time to share humorous or thought-provoking insights with the other attorneys, just thoroughly enjoying himself.

Louis Saab was a Lowell institution. He will be missed. We all extend our condolences to his family.