Historic City News has learned of Thrasher’s failing health

In a developing story originating from a social media post made by The Southern Group, a founding partner in the political lobbying firm, John Edwin Thrasher of Fleming Island, is apparently “battling cancer” and receiving treatment at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare.

Today, colleagues, personal friends, and former law students who consider Thrasher a mentor say they have been lucky to have learned from his private greatness, which they say is often obscured by his amazing public record of accomplishment.

During the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, Thrasher began achieving recognition as an area attorney who served as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. For eight years, Thrasher was a partner in The Southern Group before being elected to the Florida Senate in 2009. When he left office in 2014, he went on to serve as president of Florida State University for seven years.

Upon his retirement in 2021, he rejoined his lobbying firm — even though he is quoted in a newspaper interview saying, “I’m not going to be lobbying, per se.” According to the Tallahassee Democrat interview on his return to The Southern Group in 2021, Thrasher said he would be “mostly working in client development and working with existing clients, not the Legislature.”

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Heard on the street —

• “Our prayers and best wishes go out to John Thrasher today. He is one of Florida’s most storied public servants this century,” posted The Southern Group on Twitter/X.
• “Thrasher is facing cancer with the same strength and heart he showed leading this university. He’s been a dedicated public servant, a proud Seminole, and a friend to many. My wife Jai and I are holding him in our thoughts and prayers, and his entire FSU family is with him,” posted FSU President Richard McCullough, also on X. Thrasher remains listed as a professor at the Florida State University College of Law.

• Florida Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, said in a statement on behalf of himself and his wife, Missy, that John Thrasher has been a fighter his whole life. “He fought for our country in Vietnam, earning a battlefield commission and two bronze stars. He fought for and won the Republican Revolution in Florida. He fought for FSU as their biggest fan and advocate. Speaker of the House, the Lion of the Senate, and Chair of the RPOF, he fought for school choice, parental rights, and so much more.”

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Accomplishments

• Thrasher served in the House from 1992 to 2000, the final two years as speaker. He was chair of the Senate Rules Committee and chaired former Governor Rick Scott’s re-election campaign.
• Thrasher was nominated for the FSU presidency by Sandy D’Alemberte, a Democrat who was president of the university from 1994–2003.
• Thrasher was president of the university during the November 2014 shooting on the school’s Tallahassee campus. After midnight, 31-year-old Myron May went into the university’s Library and opened fire, injuring three before he was quickly shot and killed in a hail of bullets by Tallahassee and FSU police.