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Henry A. Fenn

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(1909-1995)
“Tall Brother is watching you”

Henry A. Fenn
At 6 inches shy of 7 feet tall, Henry A. Fenn was a man of measure. His unusual height and the watchful eye he kept on activities at the University of Florida College of Law led to the now infamous posters, pasted to walls around the law school, that stated with affection, “Tall Brother is Watching You.”

As a youth, Fenn had always been interested in law. After earning an A.B. in English with a minor in history from Yale University in 1932, Fenn attended Yale Law School, where he completed his LL.B. in 1935.

Following law school graduation, Fenn married his wife, Mary, and took a job with Larkin, Rathbone & Perry in New York City where he worked in estates and trusts for six years. Eventually, the young couple moved their family to New Haven, Conn., where Fenn engaged in additional graduate studies at Yale.

Fenn became a Sterling Teaching Fellow at Yale and served as assistant dean from 1942 to 1947, holding that position and the rank of associate professor of law at Yale until his appointment at the University of Florida in 1948. UF president, Dr. J. Hillis Miller, and Dean Russell Niles recruited Fenn for the position of dean at the University of Florida College of Law, and supported Dean Fenn’s innovative ideas for the college.

The school was small during the war years, but enrollment grew following the end of World War II, and according to Dean Fenn, “there was nothing relaxed about that bunch. They wanted their degrees and they wanted to get out, so they worked around the clock.” During Fenn’s deanship at UF Law, he sought to decrease class size, employ more faculty and upgrade the curriculum. In 1953, Fenn instituted a groundbreaking course in legal ethics, whereby attorneys came from around the state to present ethical problems to the students.

Dean Fenn’s achievements at UF Law were many. He changed the curriculum which had included five-hour-a-week classes to two and three-hour courses. He stated that “five-hour courses give one faculty member too much control over the lives of the students.” With the change, students were exposed to a much broader curriculum than before. In addition, in 1955 the college was granted the Florida Chapter of the Order of the Coif in recognition of academic quality, and Fenn was dean during the desegregation conflict in the 1950s. The LSAT also became a part of the admissions process during Dean Fenn’s leadership — he was not convinced of the exam’s importance, but understood that it was accepted by the students and law schools nationwide.

Dean Fenn retired as dean in 1958 to devote more time to teaching and writing. He remained a member of the faculty for decades, teaching and researching even after his official retirement from UF in 1978. In 1975, Fenn was named a UF Distinguished Service Professor, and he received the Florida Blue Key Distinguished Faculty Award in 1971. Fenn continued to teach as an adjunct professor during the 1980s, primarily teaching estates and trusts.

Active in The Florida Bar, Fenn served on the Bar’s Special Committee on the Uniform Probate Code and was instrumental in the adoption of the 1975 code and subsequent revisions. He acted as an adviser to the Legislative Committee on Probate Reform, appointed by the 1974 Legislature, and was a member of the Bar’s Continuing Legal Education Probate Course Steering Committee. Fenn also served on the advisory committee to the American Bar Association’s Florida Probate Administration Study.

Fenn’s first love was always teaching, and he stated that he tried to stimulate student thinking.

“You can learn only a small amount in law school, but you can learn the methods of approach to legal problems and these are utilized in most areas of the law,” Fenn said. “If ever you have to choose between what you suppose to be your legal knowledge and what you know to be common sense, should ever they conflict, ride with your common sense.”

“Tall Brother” died at the age of 85 on Jan. 9, 1995 in Saranac Lake, New York. He was survived by his wife and their five children.

Published: June 27th, 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.