Edwin Harris Drew (October 28, 1903 – February 9, 1978) was a justice of the
Supreme Court of Florida
The Supreme Court of Florida is the state supreme court, highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. It consists of seven justices—one of whom serves as Chief Justice. Six members are chosen from six districts around the state to foster geog ...
from August 18, 1952, to January 5, 1971, including two periods as chief justice.
Born in
Fargo, Georgia
Fargo is a city in Clinch County, Georgia, Clinch County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 250. Formerly a town, it was municipal corporation, incorpora ...
,
[Erik Robinson, "Florida Supreme Court Justices: List of Life Dates", Florida Supreme Court Historical Society (June 2010).][''The Florida Handbook'' (1970), Vol. 12, p. 161.] Drew was educated in the public schools of Florida,
[''Florida Municipal Record'' (1952), Vol. 25-26, p. 2.] and received an
LL.B.
A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...
from Stetson University in 1923.
That year, Drew entered the practice of law in Palm Beach County, including beginning lengthy service as an attorney for the Town of Palm Beach.
On June 10, 1927, Drew married Edith Turner of Cleaton, Kentucky,
[''Panama City News-Herald'' (August 12, 1952), p. 2.] with whom he had one daughter, Melanie.
While maintaining his private practice, Drew was active in governmental affairs, serving as a member of the State Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission,
[''Florida State University Law Review'' (1978), Vol. 6, p. ii.] member and secretary of the Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Port of Palm Beach,
and a member of the committee whose work resulted in the continuous statutory revision system which became effective in 1941.
Drew also served as president of the Stetson University Alumni Association.
In addition to continually serving as an attorney for the Town of Palm Beach, he was also an attorney for Jupiter Inlet District and Everglades Drainage District.
He also served as president of the Florida Bar Association, and on the committee that drafted the constitution and by-laws for its successor, The Florida Bar. Following this succession, he chaired the newly formed Committee on Judicial Administration of The Florida Bar.
When Florida Supreme Court Justice Roy H. Chapman died suddenly in 1952, a state bar poll named Drew as one of the most qualified attorneys for consideration for the seat,
and Governor Fuller Warren subsequently appointed Drew to the court.
[Joseph A. Boyd Jr., Randall Reder,]
A History of the Florida Supreme Court
, ''University of Miami Law Review'' (1981), p. 1059. Drew was elected to the seat in his own right six months later.
and continued to be reelected thereafter. Drew served as chief justice from May 6, 1955, to January 8, 1957, and again from July 1, 1963, to July 1, 1965.
In 1957, Drew was the sole Justice dissenting from a decision of the Florida Supreme Court to deny Virgil D. Hawkins admission to the University of Florida Law School on the basis that Hawkins was black.
[''Florida v. Hawkins'', 93 So.2d 354 (Fla. Sup. Ct., March 8, 1957).]
Drew died in Tallahassee, Florida.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drew, E. Harris
Justices of the Supreme Court of Florida
1903 births
1978 deaths
Stetson University College of Law alumni
Chief justices of the Supreme Court of Florida
People from Clinch County, Georgia
20th-century American judges