House Honors Speaker Fred Schultz

As the Florida House tackled more than 100 bills on Friday, the session came to a screeching halt and passed a resolution honoring former House Speaker Fred Schultz who passed away last year.

Schultz served as speaker in 1969 and 1970. It was time of great changes in Florida politics with Claude Kirk, the first Republican since Reconstruction serving as governor, in power and the state government undergoing massive reform due to the constitution approved in 1968. During his tenure as speaker, Schultz streamlined the House and proved instrumental in creating the University of North Florida and Florida State College at Jacksonville.

He led the transformation of this body, said Rep. Charles McBurney, R-Jacksonville.

Losing a close Democratic primary contest for the U.S. Senate to Lawton Chiles in 1970, Schultz would later serve as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, being named to the post by President Jimmy Carter.