More than 600 people packed St. James Episcopal Church in Ormond Beach on Saturday, Sept. 6, to remember the late William “Bill” Chanfrau Sr., a man hailed as a “legal titan” who championed “the victimized.”
The longtime personal-injury lawyer and founder of the Daytona Beach law firm Chanfrau & Chanfrau died Aug. 23 after suffering a serious fall while visiting Iceland with his wife Muffi and two former Seabreeze High School classmates. His injuries landed him in a hospital where he subsequently contracted pneumonia. He was 78.
“As the Bible says in Micah (6:8), you should live your life to love and do justice. And dad certainly lived his life doing both incredibly well,” said Chanfrau’s daughter Kelly who delivered the eulogy.
Who was Bill Chanfrau Sr.?
Chanfrau grew up in Daytona Beach where his family has been in the legal profession nearly a century. After graduating from Florida State University, he served in the U.S. Navy where he rose to the rank of lieutenant and was stationed at a submarine base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He then graduated third in his class at Stetson University College of Law and worked three years for law firms in Daytona Beach and DeLand before starting his own practice in 1976. He renamed it Chanfrau & Chanfrau when his older brother, Phillip, joined the firm.
Today, the firm is run by Chanfrau’s son Bill Jr. and daughter Kelly, both attorneys following in the footsteps of their father.
In addition to his wife, son, daughter Kelly and their respective spouses, Chanfrau is also survived by his youngest daughter Priscilla (an agent with Adams, Cameron & Co. Realtors), six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Four of his grandchildren took part in the celebration of life by taking turns reading passages from the Bible and Book of Wisdom.
Chanfrau was active in both community and church
Chanfrau was actively involved in the community, serving as president of the Volusia County Bar Association in the early 1980s and founding president of the Volusia County Civil Trial Lawyers Association in 1989. He received the Florida Bar’s Pro Bono Service Award for starting the Volusia County Service Project which provided free legal assistance to those unable to afford a lawyer. He was also a past president of the Ormond Beach Rotary Club, a longtime member of the Ormond Beach Chamber of Commerce and for many years served on the vestry at St. James Episcopal.
Navy seamen call Chanfrau ‘One of our own’
Chanfrau’s celebration of life service filled the sanctuary as well as a side chapel at St. James Episcopal.
The service included the playing of taps and a presentation of the American flag to his widow Muffi by two uniformed Navy servicemen in recognition of Chanfrau’s stint in the military. “He took an oath (to serve) without knowing what would be asked of him,” a Navy serviceman told the audience. “In essence he gave himself to the United States government as a signed blank check and said here, Uncle Sam, take this and keep America free. He took the ultimate risk. It makes him one of us.”
Chanfrau was a ‘man of faith’
Orlando bagpiper Reginal Lyle began the celebration of life service by reading a letter from the Rev. Roy (“Father Roy”) Allison, the former rector at St. James Episcopal who now lives in Wisconsin.
“Bill was a man of great faith who believed and accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior,” Allison wrote. “He was such a blessing in so many countless ways to St. James, to me and to our community. A man who truly loved God and loved his neighbor. There is no doubt that his success was due in part to his seeking what was just, right and fair.”
The Rev. Wes Dubic, current rector at St. James Episcopal, delivered a homily in which he said, “As a legal titan (Chanfrau) fought for those who lacked a voice in the justice system. Bill was a man of faith. And because of his faith, that’s what carried him through life.”
Daughter describes Chanfrau’s life as ‘a beautiful love story’
Kelly Chanfrau in the eulogy for her father described his life as “a beautiful and wonderful love story.” She added that her parents’ 57 years of marriage “has been the flagship of the fleet of our family.”
Kelly recalled how her father loved jokes and pranks. In the 1980s, when she and her siblings were kids, he recorded a greeting on the family’s home telephone answering machine in the voice of the bumbling French detective from the “Pink Panther” movies: “You have reached the office of Inspector Clouseau. I, too, am looking for the Chanfraus at this very moment. As soon as I find them, I will have them phone you.”
Kelly said her father loved taking the family on “adventures” including snowskiing and boating outings and trips to Hawaii and Key West. He also was a big supporter of his kids’ hobbies and sports.
But Chanfrau took his responsibilities as an attorney seriously when it came to working to get the best possible outcome for those seeking his help.
“Dad loved his clients and his heart would break for the victimized,” Kelly recalled. “He’d tell stories of his clients’ struggles at the dinner table. What made our dad so remarkable was that he did not just have a lion’s heart, but he was also tender and loving. Dad shows us that true strength isn’t about power or force. It was about protecting, uplifting and, of course, caring for others.”
Colleagues remember their ‘great friend’
The celebration of life included “remembrances” of Chanfrau by two longtime friends and colleagues: Orlando attorney Walt Ketcham and West Palm Beach attorney Chris Searcy.
“I lost a great friend as did all of you,” said Ketcham. “We start out with great ambitions and hope at the end we can look back and have left a footprint that will be remembered. Look around the room: You are Bill Chanfrau’s footprint.”
Searcy recalled meeting Chanfrau when both were first-year students at the Stetson University College of Law in St. Petersburg in the early 1970s.
Searcy remembered when a professor singled out Chanfrau and proceeded to grill him on the spot with a series of tough questions. He marveled at how “relaxed” Chanfrau looked while answering each inquiry with “a twinkle in his eye.” “I thought to myself right then: I want to be his friend,'” he said.
The two became lifelong friends who teamed up on cases several times over the decades.
Searcy recited the 1934 poem “Immortality” by Mary Elizabeth Frye, asking the gathering to imagine it spoken by Chanfrau. It opens and closes with the lines: “Do not stand by my grave and weep. I am not there.”
“Bill my old friend,” Searcy concluded his remarks by saying, “until we meet again and you give me that beer and cigar you’ve been promising, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Hundreds turn out to remember Daytona ‘legal titan’ Bill Chanfrau Sr., 78
Reporting by Clayton Park, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
