Office managing partner of Florida firm is killed in bike wreck
The managing partner of the Fort Myers, Florida, office of a Tampa, Florida-based firm has been killed in a bicycle-car accident.
James Chelius Jr., 61, died Sunday after the bicycle he was riding was struck by a car, the Naples Daily News reports.
Chelius was managing partner of the Fort Myers office of the Banker Lopez Gassler, an 80-lawyer firm with six Florida offices.
Joseph Lopez, president and chairman of the firm, said Chelius was, among other things, a devoted family man. “He was a wonderful attorney, a wonderful asset to our firm, and he will be greatly missed, both professionally and personally,” Lopez told the newspaper. Chelius focuses his practice on personal injury litigation and had been with the firm for seven or eight years, Lopez said.
The Florida Highway Patrol said Chelius was at fault in the accident. Lopez told the newspaper that the firm had an accident reconstruction expert at the site to evaluate what happened, but the results are not yet available.
Chelius,received his law degree from the Delaware Law School of Widener University in 1977, according to the firm’s website. He leaves behind a wife and two adult children. Family members could not be reached by the newspaper for comment.
