Charlotte native Floyd F. Feeney passed away Tuesday, January 8, 2019, in Davis, California after a brief illness.
He was student body president of Central High School in 1951 and the student body president of Davidson College in 1955.
Professor Feeney taught at the School of Law at the University of California at Davis for 50 years, joining as a founding faculty member in 1968 and was still on the faculty at the time of his passing. He received the law schools Distinguished Teacher Award in 1986 and 2008.
He specialized in criminal law and election law, authored seven books and also taught in England, Germany, Italy, and China. Floyd was the son of Ona Marie McMillin Feeney of Franklin, Indiana and Burla Leighton Feeney of Moore County, North Carolina.
He was born September 26, 1933, near his mother’s hometown and grew up on 4th Street in Charlotte, playing basketball at the Midwood YMCA and delivering papers for the Charlotte News. He ran track and played basketball at Central High School and later at Davidson.
In 1956, he married Peggy Ann Ballard of Charlotte. After graduation from Davidson in 1955, Floyd served in West Germany as a Second Lieutenant in the Army and graduated from the School of Law at New York University in 1960. He served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black for the 1961 term.
While in Washington, he also worked for Covington & Burling LLP, and the Administration of International Development and was Assistant Director for the President’s Crime Commission.
He is survived by two daughters, Elizabeth Feeney (Robert Smith) of Ampthill, England and Linda Fessler (Steve Fessler) of Fresno, and five grandchildren: William Benn, Michael Fessler, Rupert Smith, Zachary Smith, and Kaitlyn Fessler.
He is also survived by two sisters: Margaret Mattison of South Carolina and Dorothy Matthews of Houston and by his former wife Peggy Feeney.
There will be a Celebration of Floyd’s life in July 2019 which will be open to the public.
In lieu of flowers the family of Floyd Feeney welcomes contributions to the Professor Floyd Feeney Scholarship Fund and sent to UC Davis School of Law, 400 Mrak Hall Drive, Davis, CA 95616 to benefit the students he cared so much about.
Published in Charlotte Observer on Jan. 20, 2019