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Frank E. Maloney

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(1918-1980)

Frank E. Maloney

Cited as an “imaginative and dedicated scholar, great teacher, generous, well learned, outstanding administrator.” Noted for contributions to growth of the law (in terms of reform and scholarly productivity) and in providing means by which UFLaw first obtained physical facilities among best in U.S. at that time. Served as Dean of the University of Florida College of Law for 12 years (1958 to 1970), and persevered in fulfilling dream to replace Bryan Hall (built in 1914) with modern facilities (Holland Law Center). Taught at the College for 34 years. Both a beloved teacher and a recognized expert on water law, he was famous for taking groups of students on tubing trips down the Ichetucknee River.

Born 1918, Niagara Falls, NY. Married Lucille T. Maloney (winner of Gainesville Sun’s 1980 Community Service Award) and they had three children: Jo Ann Maloney Smallwood, Frank Maloney Jr. and Elizabeth Maloney Hurst. (Son-in-law, Sam T. Dell Research Scholar and Professor of Law Thomas Hurst is current member of UFLaw faculty.) Survived by wife and children.

College Education / Achievements

  • St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, 1938
  • J.D., high honors, University of Florida, 1942. Phi Beta Kappa, Order of the Coif, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Alpha Delta (national officer), Pi Kappa Phi
  • Graduate Fellow, Columbia University School of Law, 1951
  • Frank E. Maloney Scholarship established in his honor at UF College of Law
  • Visiting Professor of Law at New York, George Washington, Vanderbilt, Texas Tech Universities

Legal Experience

  • Represented United States (as Water Law expert) at 1977 United Nations Conference in Argentina on World’s Water Problems
  • Founded law school’s Eastern Water Law Center, now part of the Center for Governmental Responsibility
  • Co-drafted Florida Coastal Mapping Act of 1974; Florida Water Resources Act of 1972; Tennessee Water Quality Act of 1971 (revisions 1977)

Non-Legal Achievements

  • World War II, 1942-46. Enlisted in U.S. Army Air Corps and discharged as colonel. Served for 7th Army Air Corps in China-Burma-India theater.
  • Faculty, University of Florida College of Law, 1946-1980
  • Dean, University of Florida College of Law, 1958-70 (First alumnus to serve as Dean)
    • Spearheaded fund raising for construction of new law school facilities, Holland Hall Law Center, 1969 (previously housed at Bryan Hall)
  • Founded Law Center Trustees and scholarships

Associations / Organizations / Honors

  • Gubernatorial Appointment, 1979: Chairman of Task Force on Rapid Growth Effects on Florida’s Lower Gulf Coast
  • Fellow, American Bar Foundation
  • American Law Institute
  • Southeastern Law Teachers Association
  • 8th Judicial Circuit Bar Association
  • Awarded University of Florida President’s Medallion
  • Florida Blue Key (Honorary)

Published: June 26th, 2014

Category: Alumni

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The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

 

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

 

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.