By Craig Shop | JBA Executive Director
What do Duncan U. Fletcher, Chester Bedell, John E. Mathews, J. Henry Blount, Rutledge Liles, Hank Coxe, Mary K. Phillips and Reginald Luster have in common?
All are former presidents of the Jacksonville Bar Association.
Duncan Fletcher was not only the first president of the JBA, elected in February 1897, but he also was the longest-serving U.S. senator in Florida’s history and was elected to two terms as mayor of Jacksonville.
We have several former presidents who became members of the judiciary, including Circuit Judge Waddell Wallace III and most recently, Circuit Judge Katie Dearing.
Our past leaders have paved the trail for the JBA to be one of the best voluntary Bar associations in the state.
Our presidents, board of governors members and other leaders over the years have done so much to create and maintain our traditions by promoting the highest level of professionalism and ethics, unselfish service to the community, positive relations between the bench and the Bar and camaraderie among the members so that we all live up to the highest ideals of the profession at work and in the community.
To celebrate our quasquicentennial, we will gather for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 8 at the Garden Club of Jacksonville to remember our traditions and look forward to our next 125 years.
We hope we will see you there. Register at jaxbar.org.
Craig Shoup is Jacksonville Bar Association executive director.
