LEGAL COMMUNITY
SPOTLIGHT
LIVING HISTORY
21
tion to the administration of justice,” said former Florida
Supreme Court Justice B.K. Roberts at the time of Adams’
death. “His guiding star was the Constitution of the United
States and the state of Florida.”
“He was a great friend, a great jurist, and a great man of
the land,” Kirk said.
Today, the Adams Family Ranch covers 65,000 acres in St.
Lucie, Osceola and Okeechobee counties. Two more generations
of the family have stepped in to run it. The families of
Bud Adams’ three sons all live on the ranch.
One of Judge Adams’ seven grandsons, Mark Harrison,
was just a boy when he asked his grandfather what he considered
his most important venture.
The answer came back: “I’m very proud of my family;
it’s a great tribute to me and your grandmother… Obviously,
I’m prouder of my family than of any professional
career or accumulation of material possessions that I
might have had.”
Harrison, who considers his grandfather his “greatest
mentor,” said Adams taught him lessons he has carried
with him through life.
“He was all about empowerment,” says Harrison. “He
was such an outstanding and extremely dynamic person. If
I had a question, instead of answering it for me, he would
teach me how to answer my own question. He taught me
the importance of character and how that carries with you
through your whole life. He understood the universal truth,
he understood moderation and balance, but most of all, he
gave me a love of knowledge.” Judge Adams with his mother, Octavia, who was called “Maw” by her family,
in a photograph taken in 1950 when Adams was running for governor.
ROBERT ADAMS
The judge’s library at his Adams Ranch home is filled with books, antiques and mementoes of his career.