Our People
Jac Chambliss
Of Counsel
In Memoriam
Jac Chambliss, affectionately called "Mr. Jac" around the office, died on June 8, 2010, at the age of 99.
Jac was the third generation of the Chambliss family to practice law in Chattanooga at the firm that was founded by his grandfathers.
In 1886, Jac’s paternal grandfather Alexander W. (A.W.) Chambliss and maternal grandfather James B. Sizer became law partners to form what is now Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, P.C. A.W. Chambliss later served four terms as Mayor of Chattanooga. In 1924, he became a Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court and became Chief Justice in 1947. A. W. Chambliss was active in civic affairs and in 1947 began the Chambliss Shelter for needy and abused children.
Jac’s father, John A. Chambliss was a prominent Chattanooga attorney, practicing law at his father’s firm for 57 years. He also became a successful businessman. He served terms in both the Tennessee Senate and the Tennessee House of Representatives. John A. Chambliss, a noted conservationist, developed Reflection Riding Arboretum and Botanical Garden, the 300-acre nature preserve, which he later donated to a non-profit corporation that is a state-certified arboretum. He also spent several years in the management of the Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia Railroad, which on his 80th birthday, acquired and named a new locomotive in his honor.
In 1997, two longstanding Chattanooga law firms, Chambliss & Bahner, PLLC and Stophel & Stophel, P.C., merged to form Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, P.C. Jac’s brother, Robert Chambliss, a tax specialist, was a founding member of that firm that was first known as Taber and Chambliss.
Jac Chambliss was born in 1910 to John A. Chambliss and Margaret Sizer Chambliss of Chattanooga. He was educated at the Webb School of Bell Buckle, the Virginia Military Institute and Southwestern (now Rhodes) College. He graduated from Cumberland University Law School at age 21 and joined his family's law firm, Sizer, Chambliss & Kefauver, in the summer of 1932, and practiced until his death.
During the Second World War Jac served in the Navy as a gunnery officer in the South Pacific.
Active in the Episcopal Church, he was for many years a Sunday School teacher, vestryman and lay reader at the Church of the Good Shepherd.
He served on a number of corporate boards, among which were Richmond Hosiery Mills, Tri-State Telecasting Corp., TAG Railway, Standard-Coosa Thatcher Company, Provident Life & Accident Insurance Company and Gilman Paint & Varnish Company. He was active in the founding of St. Barnabas Nursing Home, and served several terms as president of the YMCA.
With talent for writing both poetry and prose, for over sixty years he contributed columns to the local newspapers, and was sought after as a speaker. A guitar and banjo player, he composed and sang ballads for his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London, he both lectured and chaired lectures there.
Married in 1934 to Bena McVea of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the couple spent many winters in Winter Park, Florida. They traveled extensively. He was also a talented photographer.
One of his proudest accomplishments was as co-founder of the Citizens Good Government League, a local non-partisan group of returning GI’s dedicated to promoting better government on the local level.
He is survived by daughter Ann Lacambra (José Maria) of Winter Park, Florida; son John A. Chambliss, III of Chattanooga; daughter Betsy Chambliss McLean of Wenatchee, Washington, eight grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.