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ESPN’s The Home Depot College Football Awards Show, College Football Hall of Fame, December 10, 2015. Eddie Griffin, head of the Jim Thorpe Award and Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, Oklahoma Governor and Thorpe Award presenter Mary Fallin, and Biletnikoff Award Founding Trustee and Thorpe Award voter Walter Manley II.

Walter at Duke Law graduation in 1972, shortly before joining the superb law firm Blackwell, Walker & Gray (then the largest in Florida) and a year before entering Harvard Business School after flipping a coin to decide whether he would enter Stanford B School or Harvard B School, having miraculously been accepted by both. He had learned he was accepted to Stanford from the dynamic Stanford Dean Bob Williams, who had completed Walter’s application the Saturday morning of the latter’s Stanford visit. Following a discussion with a kind associate dean, Walter was asked to stop by to say hello to Dean Williams, who concluded the chat by relating, “Oh, incidentally, you have just been accepted to Stanford!” As it was the third time Walter had been accepted to Stanford (undergrad & law, prior), he was on the fence between those two fine schools, whose cultures could not have been more divergent.

Many-years’ Chairman of the Great Floridians Nominating Committee Walter Manley II congratulating newly-selected Great Floridian Senator Connie Mack III.

Walter being presented the “Proclamation in Praise and Appreciation of Walter W. Manley II” by the Supreme Court of Florida—the only proclamation in the history of the Supreme Court of Florida, presented by the distinguished Chief Justice Major Harding. Pictured on the left is former Florida Bar president Mark Hulsey and on the right former Florida Bar president Bob Ervin, both distinguished lawyers and bar leaders, both good friends of Walter’s father at the University of Florida School of Law. Both the late Hulsey and the late Ervin served as outstanding presidents of the Florida Supreme Court Historical Society.

Chief Justice Major Harding presents Walter in 1999 with the only proclamation in the history of the Supreme Court of Florida, titled “A Proclamation In Praise And Appreciation Of Walter W. Manley II.”

Walter with former Florida Supreme Court chief justices Dick Ervin and Steve O’Connell, who both wrote effusive, generous forewords for the 1st volume of the Florida Supreme Court history, praised in reviews as the most outstanding state supreme court history ever written. Both Ervin and O’Connell were good friends with prominent Florida attorney Walter W. Manley, Walter’s father.

The only proclamation ever issued by the Supreme Court of Florida: “A Proclamation In Praise And Appreciation Of Walter W. Manley II”

Walter was the subject of a lengthy interview in Florida Trend.

Founding Trustee & Past Chairman Walter with 2020 Biletnikoff Award and Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith at the 27th annual Biletnikoff Award Banquet on March 6, 2021.

Schools Walter attended, was recruited by in sports (Stanford: basketball), or at which he taught.

Walter is pictured with heroic pilot and keynote speaker Scott O’Grady, subject of a movie after being shot down in Serbian conflict.

In a class that included future US senator Mitt Romney, President George W. Bush, and numerous Olympic gold medal winners, Walter was chosen as the sole official representative from Harvard B School’s class of 1975 to Harvard’s 350th anniversary celebration week.

Checking interior design and electrical plans for a very large Jacksonville project. One of Florida’s leading interior designers, Linda (University of Oklahoma College of Architecture graduate; ASID and LEED AP rated) has won four Historic Preservation awards and one Platinum Green Building Council award in Jacksonville.

Ben Manley, pictured here entering Duke student, summa cum laude graduate of Leon High School (academically ranked in top 4 of class), exceptional, recruited tennis player and golfer, and member of the Professional Ski Instructors of America, after earning all 121 merit badges, 15 palms, and the National Hornaday Conservation Award, while becoming an Eagle Scout at 12, youngest in Boy Scouts of America history, and being designated as the most accomplished scout in Florida history (3.5 million Florida scouts). A summa cum laude graduate in political science, Ben entered Duke on a full academic,/leadership scholarship. Ben completed his MA in Government at Johns Hopkins University (3.96 GPA) and has completed his studies at Harvard (Master’s in International Relations, 3.94 GPA).

Marjorie on her special day!

Eagle Scout Ben Manley at 12, soon to earn all 121 merit badges, 15 palms, and the Hornaday Award for Conservation, becoming the most highly decorated scout in Florida history and one of the most decorated scouts in American scouting history.

Walter’s father, Walter Manley, honors graduate of the University of Florida and who ranked near the top of his class at Florida Law School. A prominent trial lawyer, he was a Lt. Colonel in the artillery and served in the Pacific Theatre in WWII.

Walter’s mother Marjorie Manley upon entering the post war University of Florida School of Law, where she was a student with her husband Walter and her sister-in-law Marie Fuller Christie.

Uncle Ben Watkins, an ace awarded 3 DFCs, here in his P-47 with a freshly painted 5th swastika indicating his 5th air kill, thereby gaining him ace status; a gentle man, he was a warrior defending his country.

Ivan, Madeline, Cameron, and Marjorie.

Linda masterfully finished the 6,100 square foot (Architect Nick Fullerton, who had a designed home which appeared in Architectural Digest in 2014) Montana house in 2014: five completely new bathrooms with marble floors and countertops, new hardwood and stone flooring for most of other floors, 5 large area rugs she designed, black ebony kitchen and buffet countertops from Zimbabwe to complement the cherry cabinetry, wall color changes, and several total room conversions.

Interior design 2017.

Founding Trustee & then Chairman Walter W. Manley II presented the Biletnikoff Award trophy to Wyoming AP 1st-team All-America receiver (1996) Marcus Harris at ESPN’s The Home Depot College Football Awards show.

Chairman-elect and Banquet Chairman Walter at 2nd Annual Biletnikoff Award Banquet.

Walter, as banquet chairman of the award’s first banquet in 1995, created the template for future Biletnikoff Award banquets, called by Dick Vermeil and Larry Csonka “the best college sports banquet in America.” Pictured here with Fred Biletnikoff, 1994 BA recipient Bobby Engram of Penn State, Keynoter Archie Manning, and MC Charlie Barnes.

Founding Trustee Walter Manley II with wife Linda Benear, keynote speaker and late Pro Football Hall of Famer Len Dawson, and two-time Biletnkoff Award winner Michael Crabtree at the 2009 Biletnikoff Award Banquet.

Founding Trustee & Chairman Walter Manley II presents the Biletnikoff Award trophy, selected as the most beautiful in college sports, to 2023 winner Marvin Harrison Jr., with keynoter and Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel looking on, at the sensational 2024 black tie banquet, the BA’s 30th, before 600 patrons on March 9.

Springtime in Tallahassee

Walter and wife Linda Benear enjoying a dinner in Tulsa, OK, with Linda’s parents SuElla and Paul Reagan. SuElla, educated at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, was a Tulsa school counselor for many years. Paul was educated at Yale College, Yale Medical School, Harvard School of Health, and completed residency at Johns Hopkins Medical School. He was an internist and his specialty was cardiology. H was on the faculty of Columbia University School of Medicine for many years.They were an interesting and highly intelligent couple, who had met as classmates at Little Rock High School.
Paul’s father, also a distinguished doctor, was close friends with U.S. Senator Joseph Robinson, Senate majority leader, former governor of Arkansas, and the 1928 Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee. Robinson brought FDR and Mrs. Roosevelt to Doctor Reagan’s house during a June, 1936 trip celebrating Arkansas’s Centennial. While young Paul took care of the Roosevelt dog, President Roosevelt broadcast a radio address from the Reagan house in Little Rock. Nearly 20 years later Paul, while in residency at Johns Hopkins, and Mrs. Roosevelt met in Washington Union train station in D.C. While chatting, she thanked him for taking good care of their setter Jack during the Roosevelts’ visit to Paul’s house back in June, 1936.

Walter and Linda, with Dr. Paul & SuElla Reagan, with great friends Betty and Admiral John Ingle and their son Sandy Ingle at their weekly lunch at the Jacksonville Yacht Club after Sunday service at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church.The Ingles and the Reagans all served as senior wardens for that magnificent, historical church that was significant in Jacksonville’s history. Betty was the granddaughter of Florida Governor Francis P. Fleming and great, great niece of a Florida Supreme Court justice.

Walter holds FAA licenses in sailplanes, hot air balloons, and power planes. He named his Raven hot air balloon Big Sky in tribute to Montana. He took instructions in preparation for his FAA exam from trailblazing balloonist, exceptional attorney, and friend, the late Kingswood Sprott, Jr. Noted, late sailplane pilot and friend Doug Gaines gave Walter his first sailplane flight in 1970. His instructors were noted pilots and mechanics Pat Hange and Harriet Hamilton, flying out of Circle X airport in Mulberry, Florida.

Just before takeoff at the O’Connell Center for Walter’s Big Sky hot air balloon flight over the Florida–Southern Cal game.

Walter, flying his hot air balloon, Big Sky, over Florida Field during Florida’s September 11, 1982, victory over the Southern Cal Trojans–17 to 9.