By Tim O’Meilia
BOCA RATON — Ray Osborne, Florida’s first lieutenant governor in 80 years and an influential attorney in Boca Raton for nearly four decades, died March 3. He was 77.
Mr. Osborne, a former legislator, was appointed lieutenant governor by Gov. Claude Kirk in 1969, after a change in the Florida Constitution re-instated the position for the first time since 1889.
“He had all the qualities we needed — talent, bearing and respect,” Kirk said. “He was a bright, shining Republican for St. Petersburg and everyone — even the Democrats — admired him.”
Mr. Osborne had served two terms in the state House of Representatives, representing Pinellas County. First elected in 1964, he was one of a small minority of Republicans in a Democratic-dominated legislature.
Although Mr. Osborne made an unsuccessful run for a seat on the Public Service Commission in 1968, his ability to work with both sides of the political aisle made him an ideal choice for Kirk.
“If anything happened to me, I saw no reason to turn (the lieutenant governor post) to whomever was next in line, and that certainly wasn’t a Republican,” Kirk said in 2002.
Kirk and others gave Mr. Osborne credit for helping push landmark environmental laws through the Legislature. The Florida Clear Air and the Florida Clear Water acts, both largely in effect today, were passed during his tenure.
He also acted as a liaison between the often acerbic and always flamboyant Kirk and Democratic legislators.
In 1970, Mr. Osborne decided to seek the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate but bowed out when the GOP asked him to be Kirk’s running mate in the 1970 gubernatorial race.
When the Republican ticket lost to Reubin Askew and Tom Adams, Mr. Osborne settled in then-sleepy Boca Raton, opening his own law firm.
During his nearly 40 years in Boca Raton, he was chairman of the board of trustees of the Boca Raton Community Hospital for eight years and served on the boards of Lynn University and several banks. He helped develop the Via Mizner Financial Plaza in the 1980s.
The nonprofit hospital began exploring ways of remaining viable in the 1990s and Mr. Osborne advocated selling the hospital and using the proceeds to create a $400 million foundation to support health care in southern Palm Beach County.
The sale to an alliance of Catholic hospitals including Good Samaritan and St. Mary’s medical centers fell through and sentiment against the sale arose. Mr. Osborne resigned in 1997.
Born in Winston-Salem, N.C., the sixth of seven children, Mr. Osborne grew up in tiny Elkin, N.C. He graduated from North Carolina State University in 1955 and served two years as an Army officer in Germany.
He graduated from the University of North Carolina Law School in 1961 and married UNC student Mary Thomas White the same year. The couple moved to
St. Petersburg, where Mr. Osborne began his law and political career, quickly becoming a rising star in Republican circles.
He is survived by Mary Thomas Osborne, his wife of nearly 50 years; their daughter, Molly Payne Osborne; their grandson, Nicholas Payne and his brother, R. Brady Osborne.
A funeral service was held March 7 at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton. Donations may be made in Mr. Osborne’s memory to the Osborne White Foundation, P.O. Drawer 40, Boca Raton, FL 33429; the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, c/o Dr. Sagar Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Suite 4004, 1365 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30322 or Hospice by the Sea of Boca Raton.
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