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Paul Roney, prominent U.S. judge, dies at 85

A champion of civil rights, he was a pillar in the civic community and influenced many lawyers.

By JOSE CARDENAS, CARRIE WEIMAR and CRAIG BASSE
Published September 17, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG — Paul H. Roney, a St. Petersburg attorney who rose to prominence as chief judge of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and influenced scores of young lawyers during his more than three decades on the bench, died late Saturday (Sept. 16, 2006). He was 85.

“He was what you would call a lawyer’s lawyer,” said Pinellas Senior Circuit Judge Robert Beach, his former law partner. “But he was also an outstanding judge.”

A longtime St. Petersburg resident, Judge Roney was a noted champion of civil rights. He also was exceptionally active in the community, serving on a host of civic organizations.

His no-nonsense, direct legal style had a lasting influence on the way opinions are written in the 11th Circuit, which is based in Atlanta. He served as a steadying force during the early days after the circuit was formed in 1981, colleagues said Sunday.

Since October 1989, he had held senior status with the court, retaining the authority and pay of a federal judge. Though he could have retired 20 years earlier, colleagues said he continued to take cases on a limited basis to preserve the American way of government.

“He kept working until the day of his death,” said Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Peter Fay, who serves on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. “He felt like we were blessed to live in the United States and have the freedoms we have.”
Judge Roney was at one time considered a potential nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. Although that appointment never came, his colleagues said he was admired well beyond the 11th Circuit.

“His death is a loss not only to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals but to the entire federal judiciary,” said Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Phyllis Kravitch, who served with him for 28 years.

Judge Roney considered his law clerks his extended family, and many flourished under his tutelage.

They now include some of the most influential legal minds in Florida and the country, including the former U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, Phillip Lader.

“I always have a photograph of him in my office. It’s been there since 1972,” Lader said. “He was certainly a great judge, but probably more importantly, he was a great teacher and a great human being.”

Judge Roney and his wife, Sally, knew his clerks’ mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, and called the clerks’ children their “grand-clerkchildren.” Pictures of them were intermingled with those of the Roneys’ own children and grandchildren on tables and walls of their home and his office.

He also inspired loyalty in his assistants. Estelle Sparks served as his secretary for 34 years before retiring in 1998.“He was just a wonderful person,” Ms. Sparks said.

“I don’t think I ever heard him say a bad word about anybody.”Judge Roney was a longtime pioneer for civil rights and helped racially integrate the Bar Association in St. Petersburg as a young lawyer, said St. Petersburg attorney George Rahdert, who was a clerk for Judge Roney during the 1970s.

When he became a judge, he hired clerks of various ethnic backgrounds.

Judge Roney encouraged his clerks to set aside their biases when considering cases, Rahdert said. The judge urged them to take seriously cases involving inmates complaining about bad prison conditions.

“I consider myself a political liberal and he is a Republican conservative, and I never disagreed with the outcome of one of his cases,” said Rahdert, who handles First Amendment issues for the St. Petersburg Times.

Born in Illinois, Paul Hitch Roney lived in St. Petersburg from the age of 4. After attending St. Petersburg Junior College, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from Harvard University.

In New York, he practiced law in the 1940s, then returned to St. Petersburg where he worked in several firms until he opened his own office in 1957.

He never had “a burning desire” to be a judge, he once said.

“I would have been perfectly happy to practice law the rest of my life,” he said.

Yet before he was 50 he found himself appointed by President Richard M. Nixon to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the New Orleans-based court with jurisdiction over cases from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Eleven years later, the jurisdiction was divided with the creation of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit court hearing cases from Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Judge Roney became one of the 12 original judges.

In September 1986, he was named chief judge, a post he held for three years.

Michael Elsberry, an Orlando lawyer who clerked for Judge Roney in 1974 and 1975, said his former boss was a steadying influence on the court. As the 11th Circuit’s second chief judge, he took great pains to create an allegiance among the federal judges and visited all of them in their hometowns, Elsberry said.

“They were impressed that their superior would go to the trouble to see them at home,” Elsberry said. “It helped form a real bond within the circuit.”

Judge Roney was known for his concise opinions, which always included an introductory paragraph that clearly explained the court’s position. The succinct style is still evident in opinions from the 11th Circuit, Elsberry said.
“You would never see him getting real flowery in his writing,” Elsberry said. “He wasn’t one to start pontificating on this or that.”

The pragmatic demeanor carried over to the courtroom, where Judge Roney developed a reputation for asking sharp questions.

“At the end of an oral argument, you could walk out of the courtroom with the satisfaction of knowing that whether you won or lost, your case was fairly and justly heard and considered,” said U.S. Circuit Judge Charles Wilson, who lives in Tampa and argued cases before Judge Roney before joining the 11th Circuit seven years ago.

Judge Roney was also known for being very down to earth and interested in the common man.

“Anytime I traveled with him and got in a cab, by the time we got to the hotel he knew everything about the cabbie,” said Jaye Ann Terry, a clerk for Judge Roney for 10 years. “He always introduced himself as Paul Roney.”

Judge Roney died at St. Anthony’s Hospital in St. Petersburg of complications from leukemia.

He was exceptionally active in the community. He was past president of the St. Petersburg Junior Chamber of Commerce; the St. Petersburg Council of Human Relations; the Family and Children’s Service Bureau and the Community Welfare Council.

A former director and vice president of the South Pinellas Chapter of the American Red Cross, Judge Roney also belonged to the Suncoasters, American Cancer Society, St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce, Child Guidance Clinic and Science Center of St. Petersburg.

He was also a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts and an elder at First Presbyterian Church.

In addition to his wife of 58 years, Judge Roney is survived by his three children, Susan M. Roney; Paul Hitch Roney Jr.; and Timothy Eustis Roney; seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements are being handled by Anderson-McQueen Funeral Homes. A memorial service has not yet been scheduled.

Information from Times files was used in this obituary.

[Last modified September 17, 2006, 23:04:05]