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ATTLEBORO - After retiring as clerk-magistrate of Attleboro District Court in 1983 following 32 years of service, James Sullivan never really left the building.

He was often seen walking in the hallways, greeting and talking to lawyers and people he knew from a lifetime in politics and civic organizations before he died in 2000 at age 87.

The court he loved so much now bears his name.

It was rededicated Wednesday in his memory as the James H. Sullivan Courthouse during a ceremony attended by 250 people, including a dozen current and retired judges, lawyers, dignitaries and members of the Sullivan family.

"He treated it as an extension of his family," said Judge Robert A. Mulligan, chief justice for administration and management. "James Sullivan was close to the people and he was deeply involved in his community," said Judge Lynda M. Connolly, chief justice of the state's district courts.

State Rep. James Fagan, D-Taunton, who got legislation passed in 2006 to rename the courthouse, said his parents knew Sullivan and remembered getting advice from him as a young lawyer starting out the 1970s.

"The rededication of this court, of this building, is really a tribute to the entire court system. It's a tribute to the man who gave to his community and the community of justice," Fagan said.

Sullivan, who was remembered as a dedicated family man, was also a local political powerhouse who campaigned for numerous officials, including John F. Kennedy's U.S. Senate and presidential bids.

His son, Daniel J. Sullivan, who succeeded his father as the court's clerk magistrate in 1983, said the event was a "great day for the Sullivan family."

"Other than his family," Sullivan said of his father when recounting the day Kennedy came to Attleboro to campaign, "he loved politics."

North Attleboro lawyer Daniel Del Vecchio Jr. called Sullivan a "self-made man" who was politically savvy, knew how to surround himself with competent people and "always cared for the little guy."

The Rev. Monsignor Daniel F. Hoye, former pastor at St. John the Evangelist Church, who officiated at Sullivan's funeral in 2000, said, "James Sullivan heard many more confessions than I ever did."

One of the people who remembers meeting Sullivan in a court hallway was Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter, who met Sullivan in 1993 when he was an assistant prosecutor.

"He was so warm, so open, so involved, so generous - and most of all, had so much common sense," Sutter recalled. When Sullivan was appointed clerk magistrate in 1951, he was the only employee in the office and the court had a single courtroom.

After Sullivan's persistent lobbying of state and county officials in the late 1960s, the building was expanded with the addition of a second floor and more courtrooms.

It now has four courtrooms and is the 11th busiest of the state's 62 district courts, according to the most recent state trial court statistics.

Court officials say up to 950 people visit the courthouse daily, either as witnesses, victims, defendants, lawyers, jurors or interested observers.

State Rep. John Lepper, R-Attleboro, said Sullivan, a Democrat, was never partisan with those he liked.

Lepper said he was friends with Sullivan, and delivered on many promises but regretted not being able to get a new courthouse for Attleboro before he leaves office.

"At least James Sullivan's name will be associated with one of the best run courthouses in the commonwealth," said Lepper, who is retiring from the Legislature this year.