Harvey Oyer III | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Boynton Beach, Florida |
| Education | J.D., University of Florida, M. Phil, Cambridge University, B.A. University of Florida |
| Occupation(s) | Author and Attorney |
| Notable work | The Adventures of Charlie Pierce children's book series |
Harvey Eugene Oyer III (born April 5, 1968) is an American author and attorney [1] from West Palm Beach, Florida. Oyer is best known for his award-winning children's book series The Adventures of Charlie Pierce.
Oyer was born in Boynton Beach, Florida, to Harvey Eugene Oyer Jr., a former Boynton Beach mayor, and Linda Eve Oyer. A fifth-generation Floridian, Oyer is the great-great grandson of pioneer settler Captain Hannibal Dillingham Pierce. Pierce who was one of the first non-Native Americans to settle in Southeast Florida, arriving in 1872 from Chicago, Illinois with wife and son Charles. [2]
Pierce was one of several early settlers who planted thousands of coconuts salvaged from the Providencia Spanish shipwreck off of Palm Beach, Florida in January 1878. [3] The resulting coconut palm groves eventually gave Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, and Palm Beach County their respective names. [4] [5] Oyer's great grandmother, Lillie Pierce Voss, was the first child of European descent born between Jupiter and Miami. She was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame in 2013. [6] Oyer is the great-grandnephew of Charles William Pierce, for whom Oyer's children's book series is named. Charles William Pierce was elected a Great Floridian in 2009. [7]
Oyer attended the University of Florida, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with high honors, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, [8] and was selected as the Most Outstanding Male Leader in the Class of 1990. Oyer was awarded a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship and studied graduate economics at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. Oyer continued his studies earning a Master of Philosophy in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge in England. He returned to the University of Florida and earned a Juris Doctor, with honors, from the College of Law. [8] He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1998. [9]
Oyer served in the United States Marine Corps, attaining the rank of captain. [8]
Oyer is a land use, zoning, and real estate attorney in West Palm Beach, Florida
Oyer has written or contributed to a number of books and articles, predominantly about Florida and its history. His most well-known books are the children's book series, The Adventures of Charlie Pierce. [10] The five-book series includes the titles, The American Jungle, (2008), [11] The Last Egret, (2010), [12] The Last Calusa, (2012), [13] The Barefoot Mailman, (2015), [14] and Charlie and the Tycoon, (2016). [15] His books have won numerous awards and have sold over 300,000 copies in Florida. [16]
Oyer is a lecturer who regularly presents lectures about Florida and its history. He served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Miami School of Law and an adjunct professor of political science at the Florida Atlantic University Honors College. [8] He has been a guest lecturer at a number of schools and universities, including Palm Beach Atlantic University and Vanderbilt University Law School. [17] Oyer has presented to numerous elementary school classrooms around Florida to help schoolchildren appreciate Florida's unique history. [18] [19]
In 2024, Oyer is helping to promote the restoration of the Harriet Himmel theatre in West Palm Beach's CityPlace shopping and residential district. [20] In the early to mid-2000s, Oyer spearheaded the project to save and restore the historic 1916 Palm Beach County Courthouse, which was to be demolished. [21] Subsequently, Oyer helped to create the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum in the restored Courthouse building. [22] In the early 2000s, he led efforts to restore the famed Worth Avenue in Palm Beach. [23]
A member of the famed Explorers Club, Oyer in 2022 led a team of explorers and a scientist across the Florida Everglades in canoes from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, retracing the 1897 Everglades crossing of explorer Hugh L. Willoughby. [24] In 1897, Willoughby tested the waters of the Everglades for a number of contaminants, which provided the baseline water chemistry of the Florida Everglades. Oyer’s 2022 expedition, carrying the Explorers Club flag, followed Willoughby’s route 130 miles through dense and remote sawgrass and mangrove swamps, a feat that had not been successfully completed in the 125 years since Willoughby accomplished it. Oyer’s team collected water samples in the same locations that Willoughby had 125 years earlier and tested for the same contaminants as well as PFAS substances, microplastics, and antibiotic-resistant genes. [25]
Oyer also participated in Explorers Club flagged expeditions to the remote highlands of Papua, New Guinea and performed underwater surveys of portions of the Bahama Islands. In 2018, Oyer and four other men cross-country skied to the North Pole.
Oyer has held several chair and board positions on local and statewide boards.
On the local level, Oyer served for seven terms as the Chairman of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County. [26] He was the 100th Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches, [27] two-time Chairman of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, [28] and President of the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches.
He has served as a board member of the Cox Science Center and Aquarium, [21] United Way of Palm Beach County, Palm Beach State College Foundation, the Ann Norton Sculpture Garden, American Red Cross of Palm Beach County, and the Palm Beach County Education Commission.
On a statewide level, he has served on the board of the Florida Historical Society [29] and the Florida Supreme Court Historical Society.
Oyer has been awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, [30] the Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Service, [31] the National Daughters of the American Revolution National Community Service Award, [32] and was named one of the 100 Most Influential Floridians by Florida International magazine [33] and a Legend of Palm Beach by Palm Beach Illustrated magazine. [34] Oyer has been listed multiple times in the Florida 500 list of the most influential leaders in Florida by Florida Trend magazine.”
In 2013, Oyer was named the Florida Distinguished Author by the Florida House in Washington, D.C. [35]
In 2023, Oyer was elected to the Academy of Golden Gators by the University of Florida where he was already a member of the Student Hall of Fame. [36]
Broward County is a county in Florida, United States, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's second-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with 1,944,375 residents as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and most populous city is Fort Lauderdale, which had a population of 182,760 as of 2020. The county is part of the South Florida region of the state.
Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's third-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and Broward County and the 26th-most populous in the United States, with 1,492,191 residents as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is West Palm Beach, which had a population of 117,415 as of 2020. Named after one of its oldest settlements, Palm Beach, the county was established in 1909, after being split from Miami-Dade County. The county's modern-day boundaries were established in 1963.
Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intracoastal Waterway to its west and a small section of the Intracoastal Waterway and South Palm Beach to its south. It is part of the South Florida metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, Palm Beach had a year-round population of 9,245.
South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of the continental United States and the only region of the continental U.S. that includes some areas with a tropical climate.
The Lake Worth Lagoon is a lagoon located in Palm Beach County, Florida. It runs parallel to the coast, and is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by barrier beaches, including Palm Beach Island. The lagoon is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by two permanent, man-made inlets.
The Royal Poinciana Hotel was a Gilded Age hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, United States. Developed by Standard Oil founder Henry Flagler and approximately 1,000 workers, the hotel opened on February 11, 1894. As Flagler's first structure in South Florida, the Royal Poinciana Hotel played a significant role in the region's history, transforming the previously desolate area into a winter tourist destination and accelerating the development of Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. Two months later, Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway reached West Palm Beach, while a railroad bridge built across the Lake Worth Lagoon in 1895 allowed guests direct access to the hotel. In 1896, Flagler opened a second hotel nearby, The Breakers. The success of both hotels led to expansions of the Royal Poinciana Hotel in 1899 and 1901. By then, the building had reportedly become both the largest hotel and largest wooden structure in the world at the time.
The Lofthus is a Norwegian shipwreck near Boynton Beach, Florida, United States. Built in 1868 in Sunderland, England by T.R. Oswald, the 222-foot iron-hulled vessel was originally christened Cashmere and rigged as a three masted barque. She was painted with false gunports to ward off Sumatran and Javanese pirates. After a career in the East Indian trade Cashmere was sold to a Norwegian firm, renamed Lofthus, and used in the American trade. On February 4, 1898, the Lofthaus wrecked in a storm en route to Buenos Aires, Argentina from Pensacola, Florida. The crew of 16 men, as well as the ship's cat and dog were rescued by the passing vessel Three Friends, which was smuggling guns to Cuba. The ship, however, was declared a loss as it could not be removed from the shallow reef. The cargo, primarily lumber, was salvaged and brought ashore by locals and reportedly used to build homes in the Boynton Beach area.
The Ormond Hotel was a historic hotel in Ormond Beach, Florida, United States. It was located at 15 East Granada Boulevard.
The Breakers Palm Beach is a historic, Renaissance Revival style luxury hotel with 534 rooms. It is located at 1 South County Road in Palm Beach, Florida. During the 1895–96 winter season, business tycoon Henry Flagler opened the first Breakers resort, then the only oceanfront lodging south of Daytona Beach, to accommodate additional tourists due to the popularity of his Royal Poinciana Hotel. Known as the Palm Beach Inn upon its original opening, it was renamed The Breakers in 1901 after guests requested rooms "over by the breakers". While the Royal Poinciana Hotel permanently closed in the 1930s due to the Great Depression, The Breakers became a primary resort in Palm Beach, hosting many famous guests throughout the years. The current structure is the third incarnation of the hotel, having opened in December 1926 following two earlier structures on the same site that burned down in 1903 and 1925.
Dave Aronberg is the State Attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida and a former member of the Florida Senate. He was elected to the Senate in 2002 as its youngest member and served for eight years. He is a Democrat.
Waldo Emmerson Sexton was an entrepreneur whose enterprises have attracted visitors to Vero Beach, Florida, since the 1930s and remain of value to the community, industry, tourists, artists, historians and horticulturalists. He was named to the list of Great Floridians by the Florida Department of State for his agricultural contributions.
Everglades University, formerly known as the American Flyers College, is a private university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and several other campuses throughout the state. Everglades offers bachelor's and master's degree programs, both via online and on-campus.
Shutts & Bowen LLP is an AmLaw 200 law firm with 270 attorneys in eight offices in the state of Florida. Shutts & Bowen was founded in 1910. Frank B. Shutts came to Miami in 1909 and became the legal representative of Henry Flagler and the Florida East Coast Railway Company. In 1910, he formed a professional association with Henry F. Atkinson.
Lillie Pierce Voss was an early South Florida pioneer, inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame by the Florida Commission on the Status of Women in 2012/13.
Alfonso Fernando Gonzalez was a Florida Pioneer, Explorer and Steamship Captain, best known for his participation in an 1893 expedition through the Florida Everglades. Gonzalez was a son of Captain Manuel A. Gonzalez, who founded the City of Ft. Myers, Florida in 1866,
Harvey Eugene Oyer Jr. was a businessman and civic leader who served as Mayor of Boynton Beach, Florida. He was known widely as “Mr. Boynton Beach”.
Charles William Pierce was one of South Florida's most important pioneer citizens. Arriving in 1872, Pierce was a community leader in banking, seamanship, the postal service, and author of the sentinel book on early South Florida life.
The 2022 Florida gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Florida, alongside other state and local elections. Incumbent Republican Party governor Ron DeSantis won re-election in a landslide and defeated the Democratic Party nominee, former U.S. representative Charlie Crist, who previously served as governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 as a Republican and later as an Independent. No Democrat has been elected governor of Florida since 1994.
John Latham Volk was an Austrian-born American architect who designed public buildings and private residences in and around Palm Beach, Florida from the 1920s until his death in 1984. Although there is no particular style exclusively associated with Volk, he worked with many styles from Mediterranean Revival to Modern. Volk was among a group of architects considered the “Big Five,” along with Marion Sims Wyeth, Addison Mizner, Maurice Fatio, and Howard Major, who defined Palm Beach style in the early twentieth century.