Frank Gummey, former attorney for New Smyrna Beach, Volusia County and Daytona Beach, dies

Frank Gummey, a government attorney who was in the middle of several consequential court fights over a 44-year career, died Friday.

Gummey served in Daytona Beach, Volusia County and, finally, New Smyrna Beach before retiring in early 2018. When he left, he was the highest-paid municipal government employee in the county.

He graduated from Sewanee - the University of the South, where he later served as a trustee and a regent, his widow, Susan Gummey said. He was drafted and served in the Army in Thailand before he moved to Gainesville to earn his law degree at the University of Florida.

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From there, he went to work as an assistant city attorney in Daytona Beach.

Susan Gummey recalls he rented a home in Wilbur-by-the-Sea for several years in the 1970s.

One of her friends introduced her to Gummey.

"We were a bunch of school teachers and we would come to the beach and stop to see Frank. That's how we got to know each other," she said. "Frank would claim it was his animal magnetism, but actually, he rented a house on the beach during those summers. That really increased the traffic of the school teachers coming to the beach."

One of those summers, she started dating him. They were married 41 years.

Adult businesses, Bush v. Gore cases

In Daytona Beach, he was later promoted to city attorney. Throughout the 1980s, he defended a 1981 city ordinance banning topless dancing in bars that serve alcohol. In 1990, the law was upheld by the 11th District Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

In 1983, he was involved in a case that led to Daytona Beach handing over authority over the beach to Volusia County.

Gummey left Daytona Beach after 24 years. While an assistant Volusia County attorney, he argued a case involving the election in 2000, when the results of the contest involving George Bush and Al Gore were protracted by Florida's delayed count. Gummey successfully convinced the state Supreme Court to extend the time allotted for the county's canvassing board to certify the results.

"Frank had just returned from Tallahassee," Susan Gummey recalled. "We opened up the New York Times, which we were getting daily at that time, and we saw his picture.  Also from Bush v. Gore, one afternoon I took a call from NBC for "The Today Show" asking for Frank and would he give some comments. I knew he would not. He would always say, 'You don't try your cases in the press.'"

In 2004, Gummey joined New Smyrna Beach as its city attorney. The city was about to embark on a legal fight over its zoning laws limiting where adult businesses could operate.

Former New Smyrna Beach Mayor Jim Hathaway, then a commissioner, was involved in hiring Gummey, saying he was the most experienced attorney available.

Hathaway would meet "almost daily" with Gummey to run things past him.

"Which was really great," Hathaway said. "He was a very good listener and he always took care of his commissioners if we had a legal issue. Frank knew who to call and when to call."

Sense of humor

When arguing one of the adult-businesses cases before the federal court, Susan Gummey said, one argument waded into anatomy.

"They had an easel with paper and he had to draw things like anal cleft, and other parts of the body. Frank was a lefty and his artistic skills were quite limited," she said.

"It was amusing to me and to him, too."

Over the weekend, Susan Gummey spent time with her son, Frank Gummey IV.

"His favorite saying from his dad was, 'No comment and don't quote me on that.'"

His sense of humor made an impression.

"He had the driest sense of humor of any man I've ever known," Hathaway said. "He would look you in eyes and you knew it was a joke, but he would look like he was being serious."

He helped found the Florida Municipal Attorneys Association, which held a conference each summer when city attorneys from around the state could meet and compare notes. Then in 1996-1997, he was elected president of the International Municipal Lawyers Association, an organization that later recognized him with its flagship Charles S. Rhyne Lifetime Achievement in Municipal Law Award.

Gummey was also a champion for the Florida "Sunshine" law, the law guaranteeing the public access to public records and public meetings. He spoke at several First Amendment Foundation seminars on the subject.

In retirement, he was able to enjoy the birth of his two grandchildren, Ezra and Madeline Marcus, born to his daughter Sarah and her husband Adam Marcus.

But at age 77, he got bad news.

"In September, we received from Mayo Clinic the diagnosis, ALS and it was the kind they said would progress rapidly, which it did," Susan Gummey said. "He had severe symptoms and he died last Friday, Nov. 11."

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated where Frank Gummey served while in the Army.

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Retired attorney dies; served New Smyrna Beach, Volusia, Daytona Beach