Francis Clifford: He sought the truth and earned deep respect | Opinion

Our team doesn't always get a chance to meet the people who send letters to the editor, propose columns or make online comments about something they've read in FLORIDA TODAY.

Given time constraints, we take every opportunity we can to talk to readers or talk in person — even when those exchanges include criticism of our work.

Happily, as in the case of longtime opinion page contributor Francis "Frank" Clifford, even those initial critiques can turn into an opportunity for healthy conversation and mutual respect.

Frank, who had recently moved to Pennsylvania to be close to family, died on March 24 at age 81. Born in Pennsylvania, he attended Catholic seminary and earned a bachelor's degree from Saint Francis College in 1966. In 1972, he matriculated at Widener University Delaware Law School. Before retirement, he took a position with the General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force at The Pentagon, where he worked for 20 years.

After retiring to Melbourne, where his wife, Joanne, died in 2005, his affiliations ranged from the Knights of Columbus, the Tiger Bay Club and the Association of Former Intelligence Officers to the League of Women Voters, with a seat on its board governance committee. He edited manuscripts, too, for local students and authors.

And he was a devoted newspaper reader and critic: Many FLORIDA TODAY veterans, past and present, were on the receiving end of Frank's eagle eye or his takes on stories he found less than compelling.

Conversation opens doors

We met because he didn't care for a phrase I'd used: "fixing dinner." He told me so, bluntly, in an email — he frowned on my use of colloquialisms and shared that "many of us learned not to write the way we speak." He followed up on my terse but polite response with a phone call, telling me that he didn't care for my conversational style of writing. I told him that while I appreciated his input, I was writing opinion and humor columns, not academic papers or legal briefs, and as such, wasn't bound by the "rules" he suggested.

Later, Frank and I met in person at a couple of focus group meetings. He told me he'd warmed to some of my ways. And when I wrote about my family's journey through my mother's dementia diagnosis and death in 2018, Frank gave me what I considered the ultimate compliment, given our many debates: He told me that my series was heartfelt and moving. I asked if that had anything to do with my style. He teased me about that for years to follow.

As our conversations became more open, I looked forward to his phone calls, which, though less frequent over the past two years, were always meaningful. I edited at least half a dozen of his columns over the years and dozens of letters, touching on everything from marijuana to voting rights to, in early 2023, a column on what he called Gov. Ron DeSantis' assault on academic freedom.

More: You should be outraged by DeSantis' assault on academic freedom | Opinion

In Frank's obituary, it was mentioned that he was known for his generosity. I saw it in action.

Here's an example: During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wrote about the effect of shutdowns on restaurant servers' income. Frank not only called to thank me, he tracked down one of the women I'd interviewed to give her a monetary gift.

'Searcher of truth'

Then there was the relationship he forged with John Torres, our engagement editor and shepherd of the opinion page.

More: To whom it may concern: I contacted you politely; please respond | Opinion

"Frank used to contact me regularly about grammar flubs in my columns," John shared. "He reminded me of a high school English teacher I once had who made the class read William Safire’s weekly column in the New York Times, called 'On Language.' ... he was passionate about good grammar, returning phone calls in a timely manner and most of all, fighting against injustice."

Jeff Dorman, a frequent letter writer whose views didn't always mesh with Frank's, forged a friendship with Frank in recent years.

In an online memorial, Jeff described Frank as "a searcher of truth." John and I agree: Frank would have loved that.

He sought that truth at every turn.

'We already had an email rapport going when he started contacting me about the case of a man I believed to be wrongfully incarcerated and featured on the first two seasons of my podcast 'Murder on the Space Coast,'" John said.

"Frank began to pepper me with emails and phone calls with questions about the man serving a life sentence for murder: Gary Bennett."

What John found extraordinary was that Frank didn’t just take his word or reporting at face value. He did his own investigation. He read through every word of the investigation, the court transcripts from Bennett’s trial and even tried to track down some of the key players.

"Eventually he came to the same conclusion I did and from that moment on, he was one of Bennett’s biggest advocates," John said.

After that, Frank always referred to Bennett by his childhood nickname, “Peewee.”

He purchased books and other reading materials for Bennett; always made sure he had money in his commissary account and besieged numerous wardens and other prison officials whenever he felt Bennett was being mistreated.

He spent the last few years of his life trying to find an attorney who would be willing to take Bennett’s case.

"Being a lawyer, Frank had an excellent command of Peewee's' case, said friend Steven Smith of Melbourne.

“And he was tenacious in contacting attorneys, prison officials, Peewee's family, on behalf of Peewee. We were usually in sync as friends but every once in a while, the retired cop in me and the attorney in him would 'go round,' verbally speaking. He was a good man.”

Frank even went as far as writing a bill that would allow an attorney to request a written opinion from the 5th District Court of Appeals, where Bennett's appeals remain stuck. Without a written opinion Bennett is unable to appeal his conviction any higher. Frank was unsuccessful in finding a sponsor.

He did, however, find forever fans across the Space Coast and beyond.

“In my opinion Francis Clifford was an angel walking among us,” said Bennett’s sister, Karen Bennett Sanders.

“He became a full-blown advocate for Gary and from this a sincere friendship was formed. Gary never had such a friend. Frank did a lot more for Gary than any one of us could imagine. Our hearts go out to Frank’s family. We will be forever grateful for the kindness he showed to our brother and Gary will miss him severely.”

So will the team at FLORIDA TODAY. We send our condolences to his family and friends.

And even though Frank might wince at the wording, John and I hope someone's fixing that man a fine dinner — and engaging him in a helluva debate about truth and justice — tonight.

Britt Kennerly is education/breaking news editor at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Kennerly at 321-917-4744 or bkennerly@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @bybrittkennerly Facebook: /bybrittkennerly

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: A 'searcher of truth': Francis J. Clifford, 1942-2024 | Opinion