Founding member of one of San Diego's oldest and largest law firms

The San Diego County Bar Foundation inducted Ferdinand Fletcher to the Distinguished Lawyers Memorial at a ceremony held on May 24th at the Bar Center. The Distinguished Lawyer Memorial was founded in 1989 to give special and permanent recognition to deceased lawyers and judges of the San Diego County Bar who demonstrated superior legal skills and high ethical standards throughout careers of significant length and whose professional, public and private careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the welfare of the community. A permanent memorial that includes a plaque honoring each inductee is located in the San Diego Hall of Justice.
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As a legendary land developer's son and a founding member of one of San Diego's oldest and largest law firms, Ferdinand T. Fletcher always felt that community service came with the territory.

"It just meant that I worked 14 hours a day instead of 10," he once said.

During nearly 50 years of practicing law with the firm of Higgs, Fletcher & Mack, he helped lay the groundwork for the Salk Institute and headed such organizations as the San Diego Rotary Club and the Armed Services YMCA.

Mr. Fletcher, one of 10 children and the last surviving son of Col. Ed and Mary Fletcher, died Sunday at his home in Point Loma. He was 94.

The cause of death was pneumonia and complications from various age-related health problems, said his son Bob.

Beginning in the early 1900s, Mr. Fletcher's father played a key role in establishing the county's road and water systems and in developing parts of East County, San Diego, Solana Beach and Del Mar. A former lieutenant colonel in the California National Guard, Ed Fletcher served in the state Senate from 1935 to 1947. He died in 1955 at age 82.

In 1938 DeWitt "Dutch" Higgs and Ferd Fletcher become acquainted during a lawsuit in which they are on opposite sides. They begin playing golf together and on January 1, 1939 form their partnership, Higgs & Fletcher.

In 1939, Ferdinand Fletcher and DeWitt "Dutch" Higgs, who would become the first San Diegan to serve as a University of California regent and as president of the California State Bar, became partners in a downtown law practice. William A. Glen, a deputy district attorney with the county counsel's office, joins the Firm in 1940 which becomes Higgs Fletcher & Glen. Thanks to Ferd's father, Senator Ed Fletcher, the Statue of Cabrillo is brought to San Diego from Oakland in 1940 and dedicated in Point Loma. Mr. Higgs serves as City Attorney for Chula Vista (1940-42 and 1946-47).

1942 - During World War Il, when Mr. Higgs and Mr. Glen departed for the service and Mr. Fletcher remained to manage the practice, Eugene Miller joined the firm which then becomes Miller, Higgs, Fletcher & Glen. The next year, Mr. Fletcher volunteers for the Navy and becomes an intelligence officer.

In the 1940s, Henry "Pitts" Mack, a nationally prominent trial attorney, joined the firm.

"Ferd was known as the consummate gentleman lawyer, very handsome and poised," said John Morrell, managing partner of Higgs, Fletcher & Mack. "He would intimidate the other side just by his presence. You never heard anybody who didn't appreciate his ethics and gentlemanly approach."

As the lawyer for the Ed Fletcher Co., Ferdinand Fletcher represented his family's vast real estate holdings. Additional clients included Home Federal Savings & Loan, which was founded in 1934 by his brother, Charles, and Frazee Paint Co.

An expert in land-use issues, Mr. Fletcher was involved in clearing the way for Cabrillo Freeway through Balboa Park in 1948.

Mr. Fletcher helped form the corporate structure of the Salk Institute and served as its legal counsel and as a secretary and trustee. The institute, founded by Jonas Salk in 1960, opened on Torrey Pines Mesa in 1963.

He retired from full-time practice in 1987 and continued with the firm as a legal consultant until about a decade ago.

His wife of 59½ years, Virginia, died in 1999.

Mr. Fletcher's community service included helping to found the Committee of 100 to preserve Spanish Colonial architecture in Balboa Park in 1967.

"Ferd was a real icon," said Paul Hartley, former president of San Diego Rotary and a longtime friend. "He was gracious and humble in his way. When he opened his mouth, you had better listen."

Over the years, Mr. Fletcher was president of the San Diego County Bar Association, president of the California Easter Seal Society, president of the San Diego and national societies for Crippled Children and Adults, chairman of the Economic Development Corp. of San Diego and chairman of the county Airport Advisory commission.

A Point Loma resident since 1943, Mr. Fletcher was born June 5, 1911, in San Diego. He grew up in a three-story home built by U.S. Grant Jr. at the northeast corner of Eighth and Ash, now the site of the El Cortez building.

His father, a Massachusetts native, had come to San Diego in 1888 with $6.10 in his pocket and an elementary school education. After starting a produce business, he married his childhood sweetheart from Massachusetts, Mary Catherine Batchelder, in April 1896. In 1908, he entered the real estate business with William Gross and developed the Mount Helix and Grossmont communities.

The business associations his father engineered helped spark Mr. Fletcher's interest in law. "By the time he was 10, he wanted to go into law – and he never changed his mind," Bob Fletcher said.

After graduating from San Diego High School, Mr. Fletcher attended Stanford University for two years, then transferred to the University of Oregon and earned a bachelor's degree in history.

Rangy and athletic at 6-foot-4, he competed in swimming and water polo at both schools.

Mr. Fletcher graduated from Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, where he began his legal career as an assistant counsel for the federal government in 1935. Later, with the City Attorney's Office in San Diego, Mr. Fletcher tried 58 cases, 53 of which resulted in convictions.

He met future partner Higgs when they were trying cases in adjoining courtrooms. "Ferd was known for his enormous voice, and Dutch apparently complained about the volume," Morrell said.

"Ferd had the finest character of any lawyer with whom I've worked," said a former colleague, Margaret Anne Payne. "The combination of him being a fine lawyer and a person whom clients could trust led to a very stable and enduring firm."

During World War II, Mr. Fletcher served as an air combat intelligence officer in the Navy. Based for a while on the aircraft carrier Yorktown, he saw duty in New Hebrides and the Solomon Islands with a Corsair fighter squadron and was involved in some of the first carrier strikes on Okinawa and Japan.

Mr. Fletcher left the Navy in 1945 as a lieutenant and resumed his law career at Higgs, Fletcher & Mack, which has grown to include 62 lawyers.

"Ferd was a wonderful example to the lawyers at his firm for the way he put clients first and took on civic responsibilities," said Craig Higgs, son of Dutch Higgs, who died in 1994. "Ferd was a mentor to young lawyers."

Civic activism seemed almost a birthright to Mr. Fletcher and his siblings.

"I got this from my father and one or two of my older brothers, that I owned duties to the city," Mr. Fletcher said in 1987.

Mr. Fletcher's last civic post was serving as a director of the Lake Cuyamaca Recreation and Park District.

He had been a member since 1946 of All Souls Episcopal Church in Point Loma, where he headed several fundraising committees and served on the vestry and as a junior and senior warden.

Mr. Fletcher was preceded in death by eight of his brothers and sisters:

* Catherine Taylor, Mr. Fletcher's oldest sibling, was a Red Cross volunteer at military installations during both world wars and a life member and former trustee of the YWCA. She died in 1976.

* Ed Fletcher Jr. oversaw construction in 1924 of the cross and amphitheater atop Mount Helix on land his father had provided the county. He founded the Borrego Air Ranch in Borrego Springs in 1945. He died in 1996.

* Charles K. Fletcher, in addition to founding Home Federal, served from 1946 to 1948 as a Republican congressman. He died in 1985.

* Lawrence S. Fletcher was a founding member of an Oakland law firm and a deputy district attorney in Alameda County under former Gov. Earl Warren. He died in 1964.

* Willis "Wig" Fletcher, a noted philanthropist and insurance company owner, helped found the San Diego Foundation. He fulfilled his father's dream by restoring Lake Cuyamaca and became the founding director of the Lake Cuyamaca Recreation and Park District. He died in 2000.

* Stephen Gilmore Fletcher spearheaded development of Fletcher Hills through the Fletcher land-development firm and planned highway development in the 1950s and 1960s as president of the county Highway Development Association. He died in 1992.

* Eugene Fletcher was a retired Air Force colonel whose decorations as a World War II fighter pilot included the Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross. He pursued a civilian career in land development. He died in 1980.

* Virginia Fletcher Hawk Church was a driving force in creating the East County Performing Arts Center in El Cajon, which opened in 1977. She sponsored opera scholarships and was designated an honorary trustee of the Arts Foundation in El Cajon. She died in January.

A surviving sister, Mary Louise Glanz of San Diego, has been active over the years in the ZLAC Rowing Club, the Wednesday Club and the Junior League.

Additional survivors include sons, Ferdinand E. Fletcher of Pacific Beach and Bob Fletcher of Point Loma; daughter, Victoria Stark of Julian; and five grandchildren.

Services are scheduled for 4 p.m. Oct. 13 at All Souls Episcopal Church, Point Loma. A reception will follow at the San Diego Yacht Club. Donations are suggested to the San Diego Armed Services YMCA or the Ed and Mary Fletcher Fund at the San Diego Foundation.

By Jack Williams - STAFF WRITER San Diego UT - September 20, 2005
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Read more at:
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