Donald L. Lais was a city attorney in St. Paul and two suburbs. He occasionally got into flaps with local politicians, especially after he was appointed city manager of Maplewood in 1985.

Lais also saw combat in Europe under Gen. George Patton, enjoyed his big family and was a mentor to alcoholics. He was a past president of the Minnesota Association of Municipal Attorneys.

Lais, 85, died of congestive heart failure in Arden Hills on July 23, said his son, Greg Lais.

"He was very personable and had a lot of loyal friends," Lais said. "He got the complexity of life and politics. He was also a simple man who regularly went to Assumption Catholic Church [in St. Paul]. He had differences with the church, but he believed in it. ... He was big on forgiveness."

Jerry Ciresi was his law partner and a friend for more than four decades. He said Lais was full of jokes and one-liners and "knew how to schmooze people." Ciresi said Lais didn't drink but loved mentoring members of Alcoholic Anonymous. He became their friends and some of them continued to visit at his care center in Arden Hills until shortly before he died, Ciresi said.

"If people were prejudiced against blacks or gays, he got really upset," Ciresi said. He noted Lais helped write a human rights ordinance as city attorney for St. Paul in the early 1960s.

Lais got into a public spat with St. Paul Mayor George Vavoulis about his legal advice on the city's buying Hillcrest golf course in 1963, the Minneapolis Star reported.

After serving as New Brighton's attorney, Lais held that post in Maplewood for 15 years. He attracted more criticism in 1985 when Mayor John Greavu, without full City Council knowledge, offered him the $58,211-a-year city manager job with benefits, including a guaranteed four-year contract. Lais later renegotiated and dropped the four-year guarantee.

"I can't afford to continue fighting them and consider that in the best interests of the city," Lais told the Minneapolis Star Tribune at the time. "But I feel justified in defending myself if I come under attack."

The council majority shifted, and he was asked to resign in November 1986. Then he worked about four years as a Minnesota workers' compensation judge arbitrating wage and injury disputes, and retired in 1990, his son said.

His dad never seemed bitter after the Maplewood flap, said Greg Lais, of Minneapolis. "He was a happy guy who didn't dwell on the past."

As a young boy, Greg gained a surprise nanny when his father brought home Darlene, a homeless 12-year-old who his dad heard was living at a St. Paul bar. Darlene helped with the family's seven children and his dad enrolled her in a Catholic school.

"She is my godmother. She stayed with us until she was 18," Greg Lais said.

Besides Greg, Lais is survived by Elizabeth, his wife of 59 years, and their other children: Helen Major, of Mounds View; Mary Waring, of Brookfield, Wis; Tom, of Maplewood; Charlie of St. Paul; Joanne Stommes, of Sioux Falls, S.D.; Ruth, of Minneapolis, and 16 grandchildren. Services have been held.