Homer Humphries, a Jacksonville lawyer who was a leader in the movement to consolidate city and county governments here and a member of the first consolidated City Council, died Thursday [March 1] in his sleep of pulmonary problems. He was 82. Mr. Humphries served a year on the old council and strongly supported the consolidation referendum in 1967. He won a term on the new council and was later appointed to the Downtown Development Authority, which he chaired from 1971 to 1978. His interests also included education, and he served on the first University of North Florida Foundation board. After graduating from The Bolles School in 1947, he attended the University of Virginia but left to join the Air Force during the Korean War. He returned to Virginia and obtained his bachelor’s degree in 1958 and his law degree from Stetson University in 1961. He practiced law in Jacksonville for 50 years until ill health forced him to retire in 2011.  (Read Full Article Here)