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George H. Starke, Jr. Receives Honorary Degree

The University of Florida recognized George H. Starke, Jr. with an honorary degree during the Spring 2019 Commencement Ceremony. View the video recording. 

Four years after segregation was declared unconstitutional in Brown vs. Board of Education, Mr. George H. Starke, Jr. enrolled in the University of Florida in September 1958 as the first African-American student admitted to the 105 year-old institution. Mr. Starke was 27 years old at the time and pursuing his dream of a law degree.  Ultimately, the physical and emotional pressures of being the only African-American student at UF took their toll, and Mr. Starke withdrew after just three semesters to take a job on Wall Street.

Before making history at UF Law, Mr. Starke earned an A.B. degree in Business Administration from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. For the next five decades, he worked as a mortgage broker, investment banker, and energy consultant in New York and Washington, D.C.

In 1962, Mr. Starke was the first African-American employed as an Investment Advisory Aide with Moody’s Investment Advisory Services in New York City.  His business acumen facilitated a successful career in venture capital and corporate and municipal finance including serving as President of both Investment Services Corporation and General Power Company as well as roles at Oppenheimer & Company, The Greyhound Corporation, Wall Street Investment Corporation, and General Trading Corporation.

Mr. Starke was born into a family of pioneers. His father, Dr. George Starke, was the first African-American to gain membership in the Florida Medical Association and opened his own practice in Sanford, Florida. His mother, Mattie Starke, was a beloved high school teacher and librarian. Mr. Starke’s cousin, Daphne Duval Williams, also made history as Florida’s first female African-American student when she enrolled in UF’s College of Education in January 1959.

In 2009, Mr. Starke was given UF’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 1998 and again in 2018, he was honored by UF Law’s Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations in recognition of the important role he played in the history of Florida higher education.

Mr. Starke has served on the UF Alumni Association Board of Directors and the University of Florida Foundation’s D.C. Council.  He is a lifetime member of the UFAA, a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, and an honorary member of Florida Blue Key.

Published: May 3rd, 2019

Category: News

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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.