Cary D. Landis, State's Attorney General, Passes Away Tuesday; One Time on Stetson Law Faculty

Noted Official On Faculty Here During Years 1901-05

    Cary D. Landis, attorney general of the state of Florida, and former professor of law at Stetson University, died yesterday noon in Tallahassee.

    The attorney general died of a sudden heart attack while at his duties in Tallahassee.  Mr. Landis apparently was in good health, having recently visited the campus when he served as toast master for the Phi Alpha Delta banquet.

    Mr. Landis was born in Claypool, Indiana, May 10, 1873 and attended North Manchester College and Indiana State Normal School.  He served as principal of Silver Lake, Indiana, High School, 1891-2 and of the high school in Flora 1892-3.

    He was then appointed superintendent of schools in Burlington, Indiana, a post which he deserted for the study of law.  He received his bachelor of law degree from the University of Michigan in 1899 and was admitted to the Indiana bar in the same year.

    Mr. Landis then came to Florida and was professor of law at Stetson University from 1901 to 1905.  He then engaged in law practice in DeLand.  He also served as attorney for the seventh Judicial District of Florida, 1911-13.

    From 1927 to 1930 Mr. Landis toured this country and abroad, returning  to be appointed attorney general of the state of Florida, March 9, 1931.  The following year he was elected to that same post for the full four-year term without opposition.

    Mr. Landis was a member of the Masonic order, having achieved the rank of Shriner, as well as being a member of the Elks, Kiwanis and Seminole (Jacksonville) Clubs.

    Mr. Landis was also a charter member of the David J. Brewer chapter of Phi Alpha Delta, national honorary legal fraternity, at John B. Stetson University.

    He is survived by a widow, Mrs. Margaret Weaver Landis and a son, Erskine W. Landis, who is a member of the DeLand law firm, Hull, Landis and Whitehair.

    Funeral services will be held in Tallahassee, after which the body will be sent to Indiana for interment.

 

This article originally appeared in the May 11, 1938 issue of  The Stetson Reporter