LIVING HISTORY
20
LEGAL COMMUNITY
SPOTLIGHT
TO THE POINT
As one of the younger justices, Adams was called upon to
write numerous opinions and he became well known for his
concise writings. The press called him the “inventor of the
one-page opinions.”
He stepped down to make an unsuccessful bid for governor
in 1952 — coincidentally, against another Fort Pierce
resident, Dan McCarty.
“I knew that Dan was a fine man, but I thought this was
a crucial time for Florida, especially regarding the need for
improved operation of the state road department and for
continuing the system of choosing the cabinet,” he wrote of
his choice to run.
In 1967, then-Gov. Claude Kirk reappointed him to the Supreme
Court and Adams served for almost three more years
before retiring at age 70.
Attorney R.N. Koblegard III is among the many local
admirers of Judge Adams, with whom he had a longtime
friendship. His grandfather was one of Adams’ first clients.
“I think he examined an abstract for him and charged him
$50,” he says.
When Adams returned to the Supreme Court, Koblegard
served as his clerk from January to October 1968.
“It was a great experience to work for him and all the other
justices,” he said. “He was a very conservative judge and
wrote opinions on a number of major cases.”
But, said Koblegard, the judge’s plain-spoken manner
always showed through. “He wasn’t wordy,” he said. “He got
right to the point.”
FROM BOOKS, KNOWLEDGE
In Fort Pierce, Adams and his wife divided their time between
their house on Indian River Drive and the home they
had built on the ranch in the 1950s, adding a second story
and a library for the judge’s books. A plaque above the door
reads, “Learning is the Most Noble and Rewarding Endeavor
of Mankind.”
When Adams died in 1989, Florida was a vastly different
place. Yet, his family’s ranchland remained a treasure of old
Florida and was little changed, still dotted with hammocks
and home to great amounts of wildlife.
“He was a distinguished jurist and made a great contribu-
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ROBERT ADAMS
In Fort Pierce, Judge Alto Lee Adams Sr. and his wife, Cara, spent time
between this house on his ranch and a house on South Indian River Drive.
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