John Shaffner Slye Obituary
John Shaffner Slye of Tallahassee, Florida, passed away on Friday August 21, 2020 at Capital Regional Medical Center.
A private funeral service will be held at St. John's Episcopal Church at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 28. This service will be streamed at http://youtube.com, and available on the St. John's website on Friday afternoon (http://saint-john.org). The Rev. David C. Killeen will be officiating. Graveside service will be held Saturday August 29 at Evergreen Cemetery in Jacksonville, Florida. Reverend David Ball will be officiating. Memorials may be made to St. John's Episcopal Church of Tallahassee, http://bit.ly; or to Friends of the Parks, Tallahassee for McCord Dog Park, https://www.talgov.com. Those wishing to sign John's guestbook may do so at http://www.bevisfh.com.
John was born January 25, 1938 in Jacksonville, Florida to Ronald Stanly Slye of Ionia, Michigan and Anna Pauline (Shaffner) Slye of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He graduated from the Bolles School in 1955, Duke University in 1959, and Stetson College of Law in 1964. He served two years in the US Army, stationed at Fort Bragg. On February 1, 1964, he married Margaret West in Jacksonville. John practiced law for 49 years, first with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, then with and Foley & Lardner, both in Jacksonville. In 1990, John joined what became the Florida Department of Children and Families, from which he retired in 2013. In 2010 John received the Claude Pepper Award, given to a lawyer whose character and accomplishments exemplify the highest ideals of government service.
John worked hard and spent his spare time attending events for his children, playing golf, and planning family vacations. He and his wife Margaret enjoyed getting together as often as possible with their lifelong "Four Seasons" friends and their families.
John and Margaret moved to Tallahassee in 1992, and it became their second hometown. They enjoyed the community of neighbors on Harriman Circle, walking dogs in the dog park, hosting their children and grandchildren, and Tallahassee life in general.
Retirement brought John the joy of being able to visit with his children (really his grandchildren) as often as possible and the freedom to travel around the United States and abroad.
John is survived by his son, David and his wife Madison, of Charleston, SC, and their children Julia, Gabrielle, and Calvin, and his son Hamilton and his wife Kelly of Bridgewater, NJ and their children John, Charlotte, and Andrew; and by his brother Bill and his wife Vicki of Fort Collins, CO. He was preceded in death by his wife Margaret and his son Bill in 2010.
