March/April 2002
Sundberg worked for ethics and open government
By Dana Peck
In settling thorny matters of ethics, minds throughout Florida turned to Alan Sundberg for guidance.
As a lawyer, former Florida Supreme Court chief justice, general counsel at Florida State, father, husband and all-around popular man, Sundberg became the person for direction on what was good and what was right.
And he had a reputation for delivering, even during his battle with lung cancer.
Having been tapped as a member of FSU's new
Board of Trustees, Sundberg mustered what was left in November
of his strength to present to the board his proposal for a code
of ethics.
The panel approved it unanimously, making it one of his last
contributions to forging integrity.
Early on Jan. 26, Sundberg died in a suburb of Jacksonville, where he was born 68 years ago.
"Alan was more than intelligence, integrity
and good humor, but he took those qualities into all that he
did," FSU President Sandy D'Alemberte said at a memorial
service Jan. 29 in Tallahassee.
Sundberg's standing as a principled man was noted statewide in
1975, when Gov. Reubin Askew asked the St. Petersburg lawyer
to leave his 17-year practice and move to Tallahassee to sanitize
a Supreme Court cloaked in scandal.
Sundberg was one of the justices who made
the sullied court one of the most respected in the nation.
During his seven years on the Supreme Court-two of them as chief
justice-Sundberg wrote the landmark opinion saying that opening
state courtroom doors to cameras was consistent with commitment
to open government and did not violate defendants' constitutional
rights.
D'Alemberte, also an attorney, argued the
case before Sundberg and quoted the opinion at the memorial service.
"There are risks in any system of free and open government."
Sundberg had written. "A democratic system is not the safest
form of government; it is just the best that man has devised
to date, and it works best when its citizens are informed about
its workings."
Sundberg left the court in 1982 and became
a partner at the Tallahassee office of Carlton Fields law firm.
Fifteen years later, D'Alemberte said, he persuaded Sundberg
to return to his Florida State alma mater as general counsel.
Sundberg had received a bachelor's degree in political science
at FSU in 1955.
In college, Sundberg often took academic and political leadership roles.
Honors from FSU continued long after he left
the campus to attend Harvard Law School, where he received a
degree in 1958.
D'Alemberte recalled that Sundberg had often told him, "At
Harvard I learned to think like a lawyer, but at FSU, I learned
to think."
Sundberg's contributions were frequently recognized by other lawyers.
"Lawyers cannot research any area of Florida law and not see his impact on the jurisprudence of this state," D'Alemberte said. "He was, fundamentally, a great lawyer, a person who, in Justice Holmes words, lived greatly in the law."
|
BackCharlie BarnesNews NotesCompressionIn MemoriamFavorite Prof |
