Randolph Lipscomb
November 6, 1945 — March 26, 2017
Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. March 29 at Memorial Funeral Home. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. March 30 at First United Methodist Church with the Rev. Tony Proctor officiating. A private graveside service will immediately follow at Friendship Cemetery with Gunter & Peel Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Lipscomb, a loving father and generous person, was head usher at First Methodist for many years; he also was a trustee and director of the Methodist Children’s Home. His community involvement included serving as president of the Town and Tower Club, the Magowah Gun and Country Club, and the Columbus-Lowndes Historical Society. At the time of his death, he was on the board of the Stephen D. Lee Foundation. He was the class representative and lead attorney in the 17-year class action to confirm the 1920 Columbus 16th-Section leases as “renewable forever.” The case ended, with the leases confirmed in federal court, in 2005.
Born in Columbus on Nov. 6, 1945, Mr. Lipscomb graduated from Mrs. Cile Andrews’ Kiddie College in Columbus in 1951, then attended Franklin Academy, S.D. Lee Junior High and Senior High before graduating from Georgia Military Academy in College Park, Georgia. At GMA he won the Silver Eagle Award for Academic Excellence. He attended the University of Mississippi, graduating in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree and majors in history, political science and English. In college, he held membership in Kappa Alpha Order and in Pi Sigma Alpha, the national honor society for political science. He graduated in 1969 from the University of Mississippi Law School after winning the American Jurisprudence Award for Commercial Law and being a member of the Moot Court Board.
Mr. Lipscomb taught business law at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, and at the University of Kentucky, in Lexington, Kentucky, before opening his law practice in Miami. While practicing there, he joined the Dade County Bar Association. He was on its Legal Ethics Committee in 1976 and 1977 and on its Professional Arbitration Committee from 1976- 1991. His Florida Bar committee work included the Uniform Commercial Code Committee and chairing the Continuing Legal Education Committee on the Commercial Code. He also co-wrote a Florida bar article on Article Nine Secured Transactions.
Mr. Lipscomb was admitted to the Mississippi Bar and the U.S. District Court Bar for the Northern District of Mississippi in 1969. He was admitted in 1970 to the Florida Bar and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida; in 1994 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; and in 2002 admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.
Survivors include one son, James Randolph Lipscomb of Columbus; two daughters: Laura Lipscomb Anzalone and her husband, Warren, of Marina Del Rey, California, and Lindsay Elise Lipscomb and her fiance, Jacob Guy Bryan, of Columbus; one brother, George Harris Lipscomb Jr., of Bay St. Louis; two nieces, Annabelle Moran and Robinette Lawler, and their children; three grandsons, George Spencer Anzalone, and William Bradley Lipscomb and James Kempe Lipscomb, both of Saltillo, Mississippi; and numerous cousins.
Pallbearers will be Will Hardy, George Hazard, Hal Hick Hartsell McClanahan, IV, David Sanders, Hank Sanders and Harry Sanders. The honorary pallbearers will be Warren Anzalone and Jacob Guy Bryan.
Memorials may be made to First United Methodist Church, Box 32, Columbus, MS, 39703
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