Sandy D'Alemberte

Sandy D'Alemberte

Full Name:  Talbot D'Alemberte
     Born:  June 1, 1933, Tallahassee, Fla.
     Died:  May 20, 2019, Tallahassee, Fla.

FSU Career

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Obituary for Talbot D'Alemberte
Sandy D'Alemberte, a pillar of FSU with a brilliant legal mind, dies at 85.

by Byron Dobson, Tallahassee Democrat Published 9:46 p.m. ET May 20, 2019 | Updated 9:03 p.m. ET May 21, 2019

A gentlemanly giant of Florida politics and education, Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte, former President of Florida State University and lion of the legal community, passed away Monday at age 85.

"Sandy was himself until the very final minutes of his life," his wife, Patsy Palmer, said Tuesday. The two celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary on May 13.

"He was engaged, he was idealistic, and he was kind," Palmer said. "It was a great gift to be with him."

D'Alemberte, who grew up in Tallahassee and Chattahoochee, earned his bachelor's degree in 1955 from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and later earned his law degree from the University of Florida in 1962.

He was respected throughout legal circles for his work on human rights, civil rights, open government and social justice. Last fall, he wrote in favor of the passage of Amendment 4, which granted the restoration of voting rights to former felons.

D'Alemberte joined students and others at last February's protests at the Capitol following the massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The ever-dapper dean wore a bow-tie as he sat on his motorized scooter, accompanied by his Palmer. He bore a sign that read, "Assault guns aren't muskets" as he listened to the speakers.

"I think it's ridiculous that we've waited so long to do something," D'Alemberte said.

Bob Kerrigan, a Pensacola attorney and long-time friend, said of D'Alemberte, "The common denominator will be he was just a courageous person. When he saw injustice, it didn't matter how powerful the opposing forces were. He didn't let anything stop him. There are not too many lawyers left like that."

D'Alemberte was dean of the College of Law from 1984 to 1989, where he was a professor for much of his long law career. He served as president of the American Bar Association from 1991 to 1992 and two years later became president of FSU, from 1994 to 2003.

Throughout his tenure as president he was dedicated to academic excellence and research, intellectual freedom, diversity, heritage and historic preservation, support for the arts and culture, championship athletics, civic responsibility and service, international programs and campus beautification.

"He lived a life of that few people really have," FSU President John Thrasher said. "He left a huge impression and legacy on the university and on social aspects of our society and certainly our state. He was a man who when he spoke people listened whether you agreed with him or not people listened."

D'Alemberte was born in 1933 in his family home just west of the Florida Capitol, the same house where his grandmother and mother were born.

In an interview with the late Tallahassee Democrat columnist Gerald Ensley, D'Alemberte said the house was at 502 S. Adams St.

"It was easy to locate," he said. "Walk out the west door of the old Capitol and walk across Adams Street and you would walk up to her front porch. My great-uncle's house was on the other side of the Capitol.

"She was really mad when the state condemned her property because she had been the best informed person in the state of Florida, based on her conversations with people who walked by or stopped in for coffee and tea."

He would later serve in that Capitol as a member of the House of Representatives from 1966 to 1972.

Former Florida Senator Bob Graham remembers D'Alemberte as a gentleman, who treated everybody with respect and dignity.

"It's such a torrent of things that remind our present Floridians and those in the future about Sandy D'Alemberte," Graham told the Tallahassee Democrat. "He talked in soft Southern accent and spoke from his head and his heart - if he had an angry bone in his body he was never open about it to the public."

One of his best friends Steve Uhlfelder, who served on the Florida Constitution Revision Commission with D'Alemberte in 1978, said he will be missed and never replaced.

"He was a national treasure. He always saw the best in others and treated everyone with respect," Uhlfelder wrote on Facebook. "They don't make them any better than him."

Uhlfelder said D'Alemberte's wife, Patsy Palmer, told him in an email D'Alemberte recently had knee surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and he had been in rehabilitation.They were returning to Tallahassee Monday afternoon when D'Alemberte took ill, having suffered from low blood pressure.

Emergency responders tried for 45 minutes to revive him, but were unsuccessful.

"No Floridian has been a better public servant than Sandy," Uhlfelder said. "He served his profession as American Bar Association president, he served his state as a member of the House and chair of Constitution Revision Commission, he served FSU as president and dean of the Law School - and still taught there - and he served so many others as a compassionate and dedicated lawyer. There was no cause too small or big for Sandy. He was a national treasure, who will never be replaced."

D'Alemberte, served as the 12th president of Florida State and his connection to FSU ran deep. His childhood home was just three blocks from where the College of Law stands today. His grandfather attended the first iteration of the school, the Seminary West of the Suwannee, and his mother attended Florida State College for Women.

As president, D'Alemberte brought funding and, ushered in the accreditation for the new College of Medicine, which welcomed its first class in 2001 and was the first new medical school in the nation in more than 20 years. He completed the university's first major capital campaign and through it established the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights and other academic improvements.

Also during his tenure, FSU became headquarters of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, the largest and highest-powered facility of its type in the world. The university also acquired The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and established the Seven Days of Opening Nights festival of the fine and performing arts, now known as Opening Nights.

"He loved Florida State University and left a lasting legacy through his dedication to academic excellence and research, diversity, campus beautification and historic preservation and support for the arts and culture," Thrasher said. "I will miss him dearly."

In the late 1990s, D'Alemberte and Thrasher, then Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, worked together on the establishment of the College of Medicine.

D'Alemberte and Thrasher shared the vision that the school should focus on training doctors to care for patients in the greatest need - the rural, elderly and underserved. Today, it is ranked No. 1 in the nation by the Association of American Medical Colleges for instruction in community health.

D'Alemberte also established FSU's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights - the nation's first of its kind. Over the past 19 years, lawyers, staff and students at the Center have helped untold victims of human trafficking, torture and war crimes in more than 90 countries, as well as those seeking asylum.

Known for his love of history, architecture and preservation, D'Alemberte is also credited with making Florida State University a better and more beautiful place.

He spearheaded the effort to renovate the interior of Florida State's Heritage Museum in the 1990s. The project resulted in the creation of a series of stained-glass windows throughout the museum and it represented a new commitment to beautify the campus.

The windows were handcrafted by artists at FSU's Master Craftsman Studio. A stained-glass window in D'Alemberte's honor, located above the museum entrance, was dedicated in 2017.

"Sandy was simply a pleasure to work with," said Larry Abele, who served as provost during D'Alemberte's tenure. "He was brilliant, he had a fantastic sense of humor and he was a class act in every single thing he did. He did so much for the university and the state of Florida, and he will be missed by many."

During the 1980s, while serving as the College of Law's fourth dean, he established a public pro bono requirement for all students, then only the second such program in the nation. His interest in campus architecture was first demonstrated with the Village Green at the College of Law and continued throughout his term.

D'Alemberte's career in public and professional service dates back more than 50 years. He served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1966-1972, chaired the Florida Constitution Revision Commission from 1977-1978 and completed a term as president of the American Bar Association from 1991-1992.

In 1990, D'Alemberte was the lead lawyer in what has become known as the "D'Alemberte Petition," which urged the Florida Supreme Court to clarify that all members of The Florida Bar have a duty to provide legal services to indigents when ordered by a court.

Perhaps D'Alemberte's most significant contribution came overseas.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, millions who had lived under communist rule behind the Iron Curtain in eastern Europe were getting their first taste of freedom.

D'Alemberte, who was serving as president of the American Bar Association at the time, quickly co-founded a volunteer program led by American lawyers and judges. They provided free legal assistance to emerging democracies so they could create legal frameworks guaranteeing the individual rights of citizens.

Today, citizens of those countries enjoy the legal protections of national constitutions and independent judiciaries as a result of the organization Central and East European Law Initiative, or CEELI, often referred to as the Legal Peace Corps.

"The audacity of Sandy's vision was quite extraordinary," said Mark Ellis, a longtime friend and FSU law school alumnus who now serves as executive director of the International Bar Association in London.

"Over the past nearly 30 years, this program has sent over 8,000 volunteer lawyers and judges to countries throughout the world. It is now the largest pro bono legal assistance program that the United States has ever undertaken, and that was Sandy's vision. He was able to bring together people who shared his vision and could take on his work."

D'Alemberte's efforts were honored in 2006 with the International Bar Association's Rule of Law Award, which honors those who have made a significant, lasting contribution to the rule of law worldwide.

D'Alemberte also has won myriad national awards for his legal advocacy. Among them are the 2007 Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award.

In 2003, he was awarded the 2003 ABA Medal, the association's highest honor, for his work in organizing the technical assistance work in Central and Eastern Europe.

Other honors include the 1986 National Sigma Delta Chi First Amendment Award; and a 1985 Emmy Award for his work in support of open government that led to the first rule allowing cameras in courtrooms.

"He's just a brilliant legal mind, dedicated teacher, with a good heart and an inspiration to all of us in public service," said Pat Gleason, special counsel for open government at the Florida Attorney General's Office. "All of us can be inspired by his life and dedication to the public good."

D'Alemberte remained active in the legal, university and local communities throughout his life and recently completed teaching spring semester courses at the College of Law.

"Sandy lived an amazingly full and extremely productive life, and he will be sorely missed," said Erin O'Connor, dean of the FSU College of Law. "He left an important and permanent legacy at the law school, and it is hard to imagine our community without his brilliance and compassion."

Last October, D'Alemberte beamed with pride in his signature bow tie as more than 100 friends and colleagues gathered to commemorate the relocation of a statue in his honor to the College of Law.

Many of them had attended other honors bestowed upon D'Alemberte on campus.

In October 2017, he had been feted at the unveiling of a stained-glass window in his honor at the Heritage Museum inside Dodd Hall, marking the years of his presidency.

The well-appointed D'Alemberte Rotunda itself, where the October event was held, was dedicated in his honor in September 1992.

The D'Alemberte Statue wasn't new. Since 2009, it had been located near the FSU College of Medicine, marking D'Alemberte's leadership in getting the medical school established during his presidency.

"It's more than a statue, it's a symbol of Sandy's leadership at Florida State, our state of Florida and certainly the nation," Thrasher said. "He is a symbol of caring about justice for all and this will be a lasting memorial to his incredible leadership at our university."

Henry Coxe, a prominent Jacksonville attorney and friend of D'Alemberte's said the character of someone like D'Alemberte is rare.

"At times some of us would sit around and discuss the question of, 'Who will be the next Sandy D'Alemberte?' It was rhetorical in one sense, because there may never be another Sandy," Coxe said. "On the other hand, we would agree there will always be another one, just as there was a Chesterfield Smith and there was a Reuben Askew. But there is at any given time only one.

"One of the best descriptions I have heard of Sandy was that he would awake each day and begin by throwing 10 new ideas against the wall, but only one of them would stick. Invariably what stuck would improve the quality of life for all citizens."

In addition to his wife, Patsy Palmer, D'Alemberte is survived by his daughter, Gabrielle D'Alemberte Grayson (Matt Grayson), of Charleston, South Carolina and Miami; a son, Joshua (wife, Alysia) D'Alemberte of Miami; four surviving grandchildren; a brother, Richard (Jean) D'Alemberte of Chattahoochee, and a niece, Trelles D'Alemberte (Clay Roberts) of Tallahassee.

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