Three or four weeks before Charlie Towers died, he was celebrating at the wedding of one of his grandchildren.
He was full of joy, said Rogers Towers shareholder T.R. Hainline, and happy to be there.
At 91, Towers was still going strong into the night.
“I think my last conversation with him was at 10 o’clock that evening, with a party going on around him,” Hainline recalled.
Towers died Thursday, leaving a decades-long legacy of love for his family, his law firm and his community.
Once one of the city’s most powerful political and legal titans, Towers became one of its most revered legends.
He ran in the circles alongside the city’s powerbrokers, including former Mayor Haydon Burns, but also was dedicated to the less fortunate.
He was a mainstay in groups such as The Salvation Army, the Rotary Club of Jacksonville and the United Way of Northeast Florida.
And he was a man of strong faith, serving in leadership roles at First Presbyterian Church and helping with the Rev. Billy Graham’s 2000 crusade in Jacksonville.
The Towers name in the firm originated with his father, but it was the younger Towers who built the business into one of Jacksonville’s iconic law practices.
Fred Franklin, the firm’s managing director, called him “the most important figure in the 110 years of the law firm.”
Towers mentored generations of younger lawyers, many of whom started at the firm right out of law school and never left because of the family atmosphere he fostered.
Generous in soul, credit
Chris Hazelip is one of those lifers, as he calls it.
He clerked at the firm during law school in 1983 and started working there the next year after graduation.
At that point, Towers was still in the office regularly and Hazelip had a number of encounters with him.
Over the years, he and Towers became friends.
He admired that Towers, who came from a privileged background, had a “very generous spirit.”
It’s a culture that permeates the firm now and one Hazelip hopes will continue.
He said there are “many, many examples” of employees struggling and their colleagues helping out.
“That’s the culture that’s been there and Charlie is the force of that,” he said.
When Bill Scheu and his secretary joined Rogers Towers in 1997, they were amazed by the firm’s collegial and caring atmosphere.
The employees truly care for each other, Scheu learned then and continues to see now.
He also learned early on about Towers’ generosity when he and another lawyer worked on a lease as part of a potential deal between the city and Boeing.
When the issue went before City Council, Towers walked to the podium and said, “These two young lawyers deserve all the credit.”
It’s something Scheu has never forgotten and, he said, certainly wasn’t true.
“Here was this giant giving the credit away,” said Scheu, who was with another law firm at the time.
He likes to share the story of Towers winning a Silver Star in World War II in Okinawa after convincing his reluctant Navy skipper to save sailors from ships set on fire when Japanese kamikaze pilots flew into them.
“Charlie rescued people that were going to get burned alive,” Scheu said.
Hainline is another of the firm’s lifers, joining in 1982 after graduating from Duke University.
When Hainline started at the firm, Towers was “just kind of the big boss.”
The two later worked closely together after Hainline was selected to take over the firm’s local government work.
That was right in Towers’ wheelhouse for mentoring.
Always a powerful presence, Towers introduced his young protégé to city officials and showed him the ropes.
The lessons Hainline learned from his mentor included treating people with respect, doing his job with humility and never assuming he was entitled to something just because he was a Rogers Towers employee.
A father figure
When Franklin joined the firm in 1986, Towers told him it would be the best thing he could do. “I trusted him and he was right,” Franklin said.
The two were comfortable with each other immediately, Franklin said, recalling his interview with Towers lasted more than two hours.
Franklin soon learned Towers was a great storyteller. They talked about how Towers’ father prepared him to lead the firm, the importance of helping others and his faith.
In 1995, Franklin left the firm to serve as general counsel for former Mayor John Delaney.
The plan was Franklin would stay in that job for two years, then return to Rogers Towers. Instead, he decided to take a job at another practice.
Telling Towers of his decision is a conversation that remains vivid in his memory. “I had no idea how much it would hurt him,” Franklin said.
Towers likened Franklin’s decision to if he had told his father was going to practice at another firm.
Franklin said he was waiting for Towers to tell him he was making a mistake. But Towers didn’t.
Franklin spent several years at the other firm, he said, but it just wasn’t home. He eagerly returned in 2004 when given the chance.
Towers had become a father figure to Franklin, whose dad had passed away not long after he started working there.
Hazelip feels the same way.
“Outside of my own father, there’s probably not a man who has been so influential in my life,” he said.
Remembering the legend
As Towers’ family and close friends gathered for a graveside service Friday, Scheu said they were asked to share one word about what he meant to them.
Friend, generous, leader — all characteristics of his heart.
Booming, a trait of his well-known voice.
That voice, his presence and his personality helped Towers command a room.
“He was the center of attention in the room no matter where you were,” Hainline said.
Hazelip said that happened at the firm’s Christmas party last year when Towers got up to speak, sharing the firm’s history as he enjoyed doing.
It struck him then, and turned out to be true, that it would be the last time he and others would hear Towers capture a room and not let it go.
Over the weekend, members of the firm gathered in Orlando for a long-planned retreat.
Franklin had wondered if the weekend might be difficult so soon after Towers’ death.
But, he said, “Charlie could not have planned it better.”
The retreat became a time for Towers’ law firm family to remember and celebrate their mentor’s life.
What could have been more perfect?
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