Federal Judge Roger Vinson, 'a legend, loved and admired by all,' dies at age 83

Pensacola’s long-serving United States District Court judge, Clyde Roger Vinson, passed away Saturday after battling prostate cancer.

Although family and friends are grieving the loss of the beloved father, respected federal judge and U.S. Naval aviator, they say they are taking comfort in the knowledge that the 83-year-old lived an accomplished life and reached every one of his many goals, including leaving a legal legacy of integrity and fairness.

Vinson was first diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997 and remained cancer free for more than 20 years. However, the disease returned in 2019 and by 2021, his prognosis was poor; doctors only gave him a couple of months to live. Not one to give up, Vinson’s family said he embraced several experimental treatments that extended his life by almost two more years.

“He was just a trooper to the end,” said Ellen Vinson, his wife of 45 years. “He has been really sick for 18 months and we had chased one research trial after another. We started out at Bethesda and there were a lot of side effects and then we went on to Tulane and we got eight months at Tulane. ... We went to New York once a week for treatments, blood tests and follow up, and that gave him almost five months that he wouldn’t have had. The grace and determination and the courage he had to do these trials and never give up, it was amazing.”

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Friends and family agree that many of the same characteristics that marked Vinson’s battle with cancer were also a hallmark of his 40-year tenure on the bench, where he presided over some of the area’s most significant cases.

Barely a year after taking the bench, Judge Vinson was assigned the infamous Christmas Day 1984 abortion clinic bombings. In 1988, he overturned Escambia County’s ban of the controversial film “The Last Temptation of Christ” on First Amendment grounds. In 1994, he presided over the high-profile federal trial of Paul Hill for shooting and killing an abortion provider and his bodyguard outside a Pensacola women’s clinic and in 2010, Vinson’s decision to grant a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, put him once again in the national spotlight.

Tim Inacio was Vinson’s career law clerk, having started with him in 2006. Most clerks stay one or two years with a judge, but Inacio worked for Vinson for 17 years because he enjoyed the work and admired the man. He described him as an exceedingly fair and reasonable judge who was also a "good, decent guy."

“I think that even when attorneys didn’t like or agree with how a case came out, I think everyone left feeling that they got a fair shot,” said Inacio. “That he listened to the arguments, that he read everything, that he considered every case from every angle, and he did this whether it was a big important case like Obamacare or whether it was small a slip and fall case somewhere on federal property. He took every case seriously and treated them seriously.”

No matter his personal beliefs, colleagues and family say the judge always let the law guide his decisions. He adhered to the law even when it was in direct opposition to his personal feelings on a situation, like the First Amendment challenge to a cross located on public property at Pensacola’s Bayview Park in 2017.

Despite his own Christian beliefs, Vinson ruled that the cross was unconstitutional under applicable case law regarding government endorsement of religion. In 2019, the Supreme Court reversed decades of precedent in a similar challenge, allowing the Bayview cross to remain, a decision Inacio said did not disappoint his boss.

From the archives: Bayview Park cross ruled unconstitutional, must be removed in 30 days

“I hope that that is how he’s viewed in the years to come, is that he was an open-minded and fair judge, that although he may have been a conservative man, he was not a conservative judge,” said Inacio. “His cases would come down on both sides of the fence. He wasn’t easily pigeon-holed in that way. That despite his personal political beliefs, that he strove to be apolitical and impartial when it came to judging.”

Judge Casey Rodgers described serving on the bench with Judge Vinson for more than two decades as a “privilege,” saying he was well-respected by the Bar and throughout the federal judiciary.

“On our Court, he was a legend, loved and admired by all,” said Rodgers. “Judge Vinson was the consummate jurist, with a brilliant legal mind and an unwavering devotion to the law. He leaves a wonderful legacy of service and dedication both to our court and this community, and everyone should be inspired by the courage, selflessness and faith he showed in the face of his illness. He will be deeply missed by our court family.”

Val Harmon worked as Vinson’s secretary for 50 years. She was devastated at the news his cancer had returned, but is also grateful she spent her career working for someone she respected as much as Vinson.

“There was not a better person on Earth than Roger Vinson is all I can say,” said Harmon. “We just had such a good relationship. You couldn’t ask for a better professional life if you’re going to work for someone for 50 years, you have the privilege of working for someone like that.”

Colleagues and family alike say they will miss his calm demeanor and unwavering integrity. “Opah,” as he was known to his 11 grandchildren, was also devoted to spending time with his family, including taking many trips with his wife, their five children, and later their grandkids.

His son, Joe Vinson, was grateful the experimental treatments gave them all more time with his dad, time he used to record the judge’s oral history, which began on his family’s farm in Kentucky, included military service and eventually a legal career as an attorney and a federal judge.

“I’d turn on the audio recorder and we would just talk about his memories then kind of go through his life chronologically,” said Joe Vinson. “We ended up getting 30-something hours of recordings that I’m going to be submitting to the local historic trust archives, at some point. That was a really, great project that I’m so glad we were able to do.”

Visitation for Judge Roger Vinson will be held Wednesday from 5-7 p.m. at Harper-Morris Memorial Chapel in Pensacola. The funeral service will be held on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at First Baptist Church of Pensacola, the Vinsons' church of more than 50 years.

His wife, Ellen, said his funeral is exactly like he wanted it, no fuss or fanfare, but an opportunity to say farewell to a man who made such a huge impact on the lives of his family, the courts and community.

“I can’t be prouder of being a Vinson and of the man that I was married to,” said Ellen Vinson. “He went on his terms. He has had a very full career. All the things he wanted to do he did, and he did them beautifully. Nobody’s perfect, but he just about was in every way.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Judge Roger Vinson of Pensacola died battling prostate cancer