by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
If you think being a lawyer is stressful, try your hand at air traffic control, guiding planes onto the deck of a rolling aircraft carrier.
But for undiluted stress, try dispatching trains, not much more nerve-wrenching than knowing the dentist is waiting with an 18-gauge needle.
Rick Fairweather understands. He’s done all three jobs.
He was an air traffic controller for 16 of his 20 years in the U.S. Navy. He briefly worked as a train dispatcher for CSX. He’s now a member of the Estate Planning Practice Group at Rogers Towers.
The controller “can tell an airplane to move a little to the left or right, descend a thousand feet to get out of the way of another aircraft,” said Fairweather. “The train’s on a track. It’s going to stay on that track.
“If you’ve got a problem, you don’t have too many solutions to it.
“On the other hand, a train can stop.”
Fairweather was a student at Minot State University in North Dakota when he ran out of money in 1975. Choices had to be made.
“Rather than working part-time and going to school part-time, I decided to join the Navy and take advantage of the G.I. Bill. Do my four, get my benefits and go back to school,” he said.
Four years became six, which became 10, which became 20 years and one week.
“They were giving me everything I wanted,” said Fairweather. “They said join the Navy and see the world, and I did. They were great to me.”
He has sailed from north of the Arctic Circle to south of the Equator. He can just about count on one hand the number of places he hasn’t been.
“I guess the most memorable in my 20 years was the time I spent on the carrier, the U.S.S. Forrestal,” he said. “Anybody that spends time on an aircraft carrier, if you’re involved in the movement of aircraft at all — on the flight deck or support aircraft or in the combat area — it’s an exciting job. It’s just a great experience.”
Fairweather landed in Jacksonville in 1986 when he was assigned to the Forrestal . . . and met and married his wife, MaryAnn.
In 1990, he transferred “across the street” and became the tower and radar branch manager at what was NAS Mayport.
He was promoted to chief petty officer and then was promoted to tower chief/radar chief.
While on active duty, Fairweather took advantage of the satellite campuses set up by colleges at military bases around the world. He completed the final two years of his undergraduate work in aviation management through Southern Illinois University’s satellite campus at Cecil Field.
“It was every other weekend, all day Saturday and Sunday, for 14 months,” said Fairweather. “I was working full time and going to school full-time.”
He was pleased with the job he took at CSX after retirement, but law school beckoned.
“I got my acceptance to the University of Florida, and I thought, how many people out there want to go to law school and can’t?” said Fairweather. “My wife supported me in every meaning of the word. Financially and emotionally.”
After graduation in December 1999, Fairweather was hired by the Blankenship Law Firm, a small practice at the beach that focused on business, estate planning and real estate.
“I was lucky working there,” he said. “I got my feet wet really fast and was able to start practicing.
“A few of my friends that went to work for large insurance defense firms are spending a lot of time doing research and writing memoranda. I was able to get involved with client contact almost immediately. That was great.”
Fairweather was with the firm for just over two years when it closed. He opened his own firm and exclusively practiced elder law for a year and a half.
“I really didn’t enjoy running a business; I enjoyed the practice of law,” he said. “When the opportunity came at Rogers Towers, I jumped at it.
“I’ve only worked here for a couple weeks, but I can’t imagine working for a better place.”
Fairweather’s focus at the firm is on elder law, estate planning, guardianship and probate.
One of the reasons why he chose those areas came from personal experience. Three months before he retired from the Navy, his mother-in-law broke her hip. She became sick and could not live alone. Fairweather and his wife, a home health care provider, tended to her in their home for two years.
“I realized my mother-in-law couldn’t be the only one in that situation; my family couldn’t be the only one who’s dealing with these issues,” he said. “There’s a lot of guilt associated with family members dealing with the whole nursing home issue.
“I think my clients get a better experience because their attorney is dealing with the same thing that they maybe have been dealing with for years or they’re just starting to deal with. If they can talk to somebody who is already dealing with it and has gone through those issues, it’s helpful to them.”