Thank You, Warren Cason

Posted Jul 18, 2010 by Tom McEwen

Updated Jul 18, 2010 at 05:35 PM

Warren Cason grew up in the strawberry hills where he picked the berries in Plant City, down the road from another man who became one of influence, Jim Walter, and he never let his rural upbringing get away from him.  He loved and appreciated his Plant City Cracker background.

Warren Cason went off to the University of Florida, fell in love with the Gators and never, ever got completely away from that Gator background.  When they let Doug Dickey go as head football coach, Warren Cason was a law partner of my late brother, Red McEwen, and by then very influential with the University.  He called me at the Tampa Tribune and asked for coaching suggestions.  I told him to go talk to the coach at Clemson, Charlie Pell, the coach at Navy, Lee Corso, and the coach at Arkansas , Lou Holtz. He did not get past Pell, he hired Pell on the spot and of course, Pell brought great success to the Gators, then turmoil, but he certainly got football’s attention for the Gators.
 
Warren Cason never relented in his support of the University of Florida, taking that great influence with him when he moved up on the big political screen, in large part because of his friendship and association with Ferris Bryant, who later became Governor of Florida.
 
Warren Cason also advanced among his legal counterparts into an area of great influence.  He never let it go completely. In fact, Warren Cason, who died this week at 85, maintained his high status in politics and the law until the end. His supportive wife-partner, Dot, was beside him when he died.  The only time in which he slowed down was in the latter years when he was driving his automobile about five miles per hour around Tampa . I say again, Warren Cason never let go until his death. He participated in the successful elections of my late brother Red as State Attorney with the Cason, McEwen, Gibbons law firm, with Congressman Sam Gibbons and with Ben Hill Griffin, a close friend of Cason’s and their associates. We are talking about some major political influence here, folks, with the deep political roots in Hillsborough, Polk, Manatee, Pasco, Hardee and Sarasota Counties , no roots deeper than those of Ben Hill, Warren Cason and Jim Walter associations. In later years, he became a partner of the Holland & Knight law firm in Tampa.

So Warren Cason could summon all of these related, or thought to be related, families from these important Florida families, including the Carlton Clan that whose influence was widely spread because the Carltons produced so many sons. Believe me, Cason did not hesitate to assemble those of his blood and/or friendships, even in something as simple as participation in the searches for football coaches for the Gators. Of course, Warren Cason also knew when time for changes were necessary and he did not hesitate to make the moves he took to get these changes made, as in the case of the hiring of Charlie Pell, as well as realizing the time for the change from Pell was approaching. 

A point here, because this is a salute to Warren Cason with his departure, a salute for his awareness that somebody sometimes always had to make decisions.  His complex association in politics, his romance with his old school, the Florida Gators, and abiding dedication to what he thought was right for all involved. It also is a salute to this man who would not hesitate to make those major decisions and to pursue their implementation. The fact that Warren would call me and ask—even if he had already made up his own mind - was appreciated. I appreciated his grit and his everlasting support of hisGators, just as I would feel that same way about Jim Smith, former Florida Attorney General, in the unflinching support of the Florida State University programs, Jim and wife Carol have always directed on behalf of Seminole purposes. 

We simply have to have this for those Universities which so deserve these loyalties. 

Thank you, Warren Cason, for that which you sought to do and did, for those Universities of your choosing. Thank you Warren Cason for that which you did in these areas and for being the good and caring man you were.