Homer Drake Collections

Collection

Identifier: MU-PP-0201

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Homer Drake Collection documents Drake’s relationship with Mercer University in the last three decades of his life. It includes correspondence, meeting minutes, news articles, publications, and other materials from his time on the Board of Trustees and his activities promoting university athletics, especially the football program when it restarted in 2013.

Dates

Creation: 1986 - 2020

Conditions Governing Access

Unrestricted access. All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Conditions Governing Use

To quote in print, or otherwise reproduce in whole or in part in any publication, including on the World Wide Web, any material from this collection, the researcher must obtain permission from (1) the owner of the physical property and (2) the holder of the copyright. Persons wishing to quote from this collection should consult the reference archivist to determine copyright holders for information in this collection. Reproduction of any item must contain the complete citation to the original.

Biographical / Historical

Walter Homer Drake, Jr., received his undergraduate degree from Mercer University in 1954 and his law degree from the Walter F. George School of Law in 1956. While in the United States Army, he was an officer in the Judge Advocate General Corps from 1956-1959. After practicing law for several years, he was appointed United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Georgia in 1964 and served as Chief Judge from 1968 to 1976. After a brief tenure with the law firm Swift, Currie, McGhee, & Hiers, he returned as bankruptcy judge for the Northern District in 1979 and remained there until 2021. He was the longest serving bankruptcy judge in US history.

Drake served on Mercer’s Board of Trustees from 2009 to 2011 and was named a Life Trustee in 2013. He received numerous alumni awards for his service to the university, and the Athletic Field House was named in his honor. Drake died on December 9, 2022, in Newnan, Georgia. (Adapted from the obituary published in the Spring 2023 Mercerian)

Extent

5.42 Linear Feet (2 records center boxes, 1 half Hollinger box, 1 oversize folder, and 1 small card box) : Mostly paper materials in mostly good condition

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of the Drake Family via Regina Thomas and Kimberly Williams (U.S. Courts, Coweta County, January 31, 2023)

Separated Materials

Notebooks from Mercer’s Board of Trustee meetings have been shelved with Trustee Minutes; a duplicate copy of a 2001 promotional VHS about Mercer’s University Center was added to the audio-visual collection.