Former Florida Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis, a professor at Florida Southern College since 2019, died May 26 at age 78, the Florida Supreme Court reported.
Lewis will lie in state in the Florida Supreme Court rotunda from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 11, the news release from the Supreme Court said. Members of the court will ceremonially receive the body, and Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz will make brief remarks.
A memorial service will be held in the courtroom of the Florida Supreme Court at 11 a.m. on June 12.
Gov. Lawton Chiles, a Lakeland native, appointed Lewis in 1998 as the 78th justice of the Florida Supreme Court. He served as chief justice from 2006 to 2008 and retired from the court in 2019.
Lewis, a West Virginia native, was a star basketball player at Florida Southern College in Lakeland. It was there that he met his wife, Judy, whom he married in 1969.
Lewis moved to Miami to attend the University of Miami School of Law, where he graduated third in his 1972 class. After military service, Lewis began work in private practice in Miami, the Supreme Court release said.
Florida Southern hired Lewis in 2019 as its first eminent professor of law and letters.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Retired Justice Fred Lewis, a Florida Southern professor, dies at 78
Reporting by Gary White, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
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