Columbus attorney Pete Daughtery dies at age 53

“The world has lost a really good person.”

George Lotz of Columbus was describing his friend, Columbus attorney Peter J. Daughtery, who died Sunday at age 53.

And others who knew Daughtery echoed that sentiment.

A law partner with Daughtery, Crawford & Brown LLP, Jason Crawford remarked, “he was a great lawyer but as great a lawyer as he was, he was even a better person.”

Clay Fuller is the U.S. Magistrate Judge U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Fuller said that during a legal proceeding, Daughtery was “unfailingly kind to everyone in the proceeding,” something not always easy to do.

“He could empathize with everyone involved in a case,” Fuller said.

The visitation for Daughtery will be 1 p.m. Tuesday at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Columbus with a celebration of life at 2 p.m. Among survivors are his wife, Julie Wray Daughtery, and daughter, Meg Daughtery. McMullen Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.

Daughtery, the son of a United Methodist minister and public school educator, got his undergraduate degree and law degree from the University of Georgia. He went on to serve as president of the Columbus Bar Association and as a member of the executive committee of the State Bar of Georgia.

He was known for doing free legal work for children in the areas of special-needs education and truancy. That work helped earn him the National Child Advocacy Award in 1996.

But he was about much more than the law.

He served on the boards of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Chattahoochee Valley, Uptown Columbus and MidTown Inc. Daugherty also was a past president of Open Door Community House.

Lotz, who has been in the real estate business for 30 years, called Daughtery his best friend. He recalled Daughtery once offering to pay the fees for a girl so she would not have to quit a soccer team.

“He didn’t even know her,” Lotz said. “He would help you out with anything. He cared.”

Crawford said Daughtery was a person who accomplished much but did not like to get credit for it.

“He did a lot of good for people, more than anyone knows. He was the most generous, genuine person I’ve known,” Lotz said. “ I know people always say these kind of things when someone dies but with Peter it is all true. He was just an outstanding human being.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2017 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Columbus attorney Pete Daughtery dies at age 53."