Richard Ervin

{{Short description|American judge}} {{One source|date=July 2020}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Richard Ervin | image = Richard W Ervin.jpg | order = 34th | office = Chief Justice of Florida | term_start = January 7, 1969 | term_end = January 5, 1971 | predecessor = Millard Caldwell | successor = B. K. Roberts | office2 = Florida Attorney General | order2 = 28th | term_start2 = 1949 | term_end2 = 1964 | governor2 = Fuller Warren<br>Daniel T. McCarty<br>Charley Eugene Johns<br>LeRoy Collins<br>C. Farris Bryant | predecessor2 = J. Thomas Watson | successor2 = James W. Kynes | birth_name = Richard Reehorse Ervin | birth_date = January 26, 1905 | birth_place = Carrabelle, Florida, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2004|8|24|1905|1|26}} | death_place = Tallahassee, Florida, U.S. | profession = Lawyer | party = Democrat }} '''Richard William Ervin Jr.''' (born Richard Reehorse Ervin, January 26, 1905 – August 24, 2004) was the Florida attorney general from 1949 to 1964 and served as chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court from 1969 to 1971.<ref name="floridasupremecourt">{{cite web |title=Justice Richard William Ervin |url=https://www.floridasupremecourt.org/Justices/Former-Justices/Justice-Richard-William-Ervin |website=Supreme Court |accessdate=30 July 2020}}</ref> He is credited with guiding the state from segregation (based on the brief he wrote to the United States Supreme Court's request from each state's attorney general on how to rule regarding ''Brown v. Board of Education''), and desegregating its schools.

His son, Richard W. Ervin III, was a judge of the First District Court of Appeal for 30 years and retired at the end of 2006.

Ervin was a graduate of the University of Florida, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. He earned his law degree at the University of Florida College of Law in 1928.<ref name="floridasupremecourt" />

Following his retirement, he was of counsel to the law firm founded by his brother Robert Ervin in Tallahassee.

He received an honorary degree from Florida State University.

From 1954 to 1975, Ervin was a national director of the fraternal organization Woodmen of the World.

==References== {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=J. Thomas Watson}} {{s-ttl|title=Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Florida|years=1948, 1952, 1956, 1960}} {{s-aft|after=Earl Faircloth}} {{s-legal}} {{s-bef | before = J. Thomas Watson}} {{s-ttl | title = Florida Attorney General | years = 1949–1964}} {{s-aft | after = James W. Kynes}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ervin, Richard}} Category:1905 births Category:2004 deaths Category:People from Carrabelle, Florida Category:University of Florida alumni Category:Florida attorneys general Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of Florida Category:Florida lawyers Category:Florida Democrats Category:20th-century Florida state court judges Category:Chief justices of the Supreme Court of Florida Category:Fredric G. Levin College of Law alumni Category:20th-century American lawyers