Smathers, Bruce A.

Bruce A. Smathers represented the Ninth District (Jacksonville) in the Florida Senate from 1972 to 1974. He resigned to seek the office of Secretary of State, which he held from 1975 to 1978. As a State Senator, he served on three key committees: Ways and Means, Education, and Governmental Operations. Also named to the Special Conference Committee, Smathers helped restore the death penalty to the state's criminal laws in 1972. He was instrumental in reorganizing the state's educational funding.

Born in Miami in 1943, Smathers attended school in Washington, D.C. and Florida. He graduated with honors from Yale and received his law degree from the University of Florida College of Law. He comes from a family of public servants, including his father, George Smathers, who was a U.S. Congressman from 1947 to 1968. Bruce Smathers served in the U.S. Navy as an Intelligence Officer with the elite Underwater Demolition Team (1965-1967). For his service in Vietnam, he was rewarded with a number of honors, including the National Defense Medal. He also served in the Naval Reserve. Before entering politics, Smathers moved from Miami to Jacksonville, where he joined the Duval County's State Attorney's Office and, subsequently, the firm Moss, Mitchell, and Smathers.