When Jack Shreve retired in June after a distinguished quarter-century of heading the Office of Public Counsel, fading off into the sunset apparently was not an option.
Less than three months after his "retirement," Shreve was recruited by Attorney General Charlie Crist to be his senior general counsel for consumer affairs.
But a guy can't live on work alone. On Nov. 21, the 71-year-old widower married again.
The bride was Jeannette Scully, who retired in September as deputy executive director of the Florida Legislature's Joint Administrative Procedures Committee.
Shreve and his wife of 42 years, Alice, were casually acquainted with Scully and her husband of 25 years, Richard. Richard died in 1996; Alice passed away in 2000.
It took Shreve's long-time assistant Kay Harder to think of the widowed and soon-to-be-retired civil servants and put two and two together.
"She said we'd been friends and why didn't we go to the movies," Scully, 60, recalled with a laugh.
Rather than squire Scully to the cinema, Shreve asked her out to a TCBY. For their first date, they had banana splits.
A year-and-a-half later, the happy couple were married in a small, private ceremony at Bradfordville Baptist Church in Tallahassee. The two honeymooned by taking golf lessons.
"She's a very sweet person," Shreve said. "She's pretty. She's smart. She's a lot of fun."
