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Grace Elizabeth Woodall “Betty” Taylor, 1926-2013

Taylor02Longtime LIC director Betty Taylor passes away

Influential UF Law faculty member and former library director Grace Elizabeth Woodall “Betty” Taylor passed away Monday, May 13. Taylor was 86.

Taylor served as the director of the University of Florida Law Library from 1962-2003 and is an extremely important figure in UF Law’s history.

“As early as 1971, when computers were only in most people’s imagination, Betty wrote about the impact computers could have on the future of libraries,” said UF Law Dean Robert Jerry.

He said Taylor brought UF Law into the information age by pioneering the use of computer databases for research and building one of the nation’s most comprehensive collections of law-related audio-visual resources.

Only a month after Taylor became director of the law library in 1962, a devastating fire left the library’s collection wet and scorched; Taylor handily supervised the rebuilding of the library’s collection. In 1969, she supervised the expansion of the library into its current location in Holland Hall and was instrumental in changing the library’s name to “Legal Information Center.”

In 1981, Taylor served as the college’s acting dean for two months while a dean’s search was underway, becoming the first woman to serve as dean of UF Law.

Taylor retired after 41 years of law school service in June 2003, and UF LAW magazine from the fall of that year provides an in-depth look at Taylor’s law school career. The story can be read in PDF form at, /news/pdf/magazine_fall03.pdf (Page 52).

Her complete obituary can be read on The Gainesville Sun’s website: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/gainesville/obituary.aspx?n=grace-taylor&pid=164817688&fhid=18654#fbLoggedOut.

Published: May 16th, 2013

Category: History

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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.