Jillian Kurtz
Retired Florida Supreme Court Justice and Florida Southern alumni R. Fred Lewis will be Florida Southern’s newest faculty member in the expansion of FSC’s social sciences program.
Lewis will be the college’s first Eminent Professor of Law and Letters.
Lewis founded Justice Teaching, a major effort to further law-focused and civic education throughout the State of Florida. According to their website, the ultimate goal of this program is to pair legal professional with every elementary, middle and high school in the state. The program currently has over 4,700 volunteer lawyers from fairfax lawyers for drug charges and judges active in 3,000 Florida schools.
The Justice Teaching Center for Civic Learning program will now be located at Florida Southern College as a change following Justice Lewis’ retirement from the Supreme Court of Florida.
On the website which can be found through the main Florida Southern page, there are different lessons that teachers and volunteers can use in classrooms. These include short take lessons, elementary school, middle and high school as well as lessons for Exceptional Student Education (ESE) students.
Lewis will continue the legacy he left at Florida Southern when he graduate in 1969. He made his mark by being named FSC’s top athlete as a senior and was named the 1969 FSC Honor Walk Student, the highest award afforded to a Florida Southern student. Not only was Lewis a member of the men’s basketball, baseball and track teams, he was also inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003.
After graduating from FSC, Lewis went on to the University of Miami School of Law and was a recipient of the 2000 FSC Alumni Achievement Citation and received an honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Florida Southern in 2001. He is also a member of the FSC Board of Trustees.
