by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
For local attorney James Cobb, the University of North Florida is a labor of love.
He recently received the presidential medallion, the university’s highest form of nonacademic recognition. Cobb, a founding partner at Peek, Cobb & Edwards, said his involvement with the school started with his former law partner, John Matthews.
“He understood the school system, and he told me Jacksonville will never be a great city until it has a great public university,” he said.
In the 1980s, Cobb helped organize a fundraising campaign to build the university’s Matthews Computer Sciences building in honor of his deceased partner and friend. He’s kept an interest in the school ever since, establishing a scholarship in honor of his parents and supporting the school as a donor and volunteer. Cobb said the university has changed a lot over the years.
“When I first got involved with it, nobody knew what it was,” said Cobb. “They said, ‘Oh, you mean that school in the woods?’ Now, it’s in the middle of everything.”
Cobb has been involved with a variety of civic efforts over the years, and he’s watched the city grow, as well. He first moved to Jacksonville from southern Georgia in 1937, when he was a child.
“Every Saturday, you would come Downtown and go to the movies and the stores,” said Cobb. “That’s where everything was ... Sears Roebuck had an entire block.”
The city’s growth concerns Cobb. He’s seen the people and neighborhoods change in both positive and negative ways, he said. Downtown has a better-developed skyline than it did 50 years ago, for example – but the days of attorneys walking to work from their Springfield homes are long gone. At a recent Jacksonville Bar Association luncheon, Cobb said he didn’t see anybody he knew.
“And I used to know everyone,” he said. “When you get too big, you don’t know people ... You don’t have all the good feelings you have about people when it’s smaller.”
Cobb said that impersonal environment makes practicing law more difficult because people don’t trust each other. He said “you almost need a contract now” to make sure some attorneys keep their promises.
“We didn’t worry about trying to trick somebody into doing something they wouldn’t ordinarily do,” said Cobb.
His approach to law – and life – is pretty simple.
“Work hard and be honest,” said Cobb. ‘’If you do, people can tell.”
When he’s not practicing law or volunteering, Cobb travels and spends time with his 11 grandchildren.