'The betterment of mankind was always my objective in life'.

• Author: Perry, James E.C.
• Position: Florida Supreme Court Justice James E.G. Perry

When he was a high-school senior, elected "Youth of the Year" of the Boys and Girls Club of Central Florida, Bruce Mount, Jr., was wrapping up his keynote speech at a celebrity breakfast.

He told the crowd that he had been accepted at Howard University, but he was about $27,000 short. Then he told the story about his grandmother saying her bedtime prayers, ending with, "Dear Lord, would you please let me win the lottery?" With a thunderbolt came a knock at the door, and a booming voice announced: "This is God."

His grandmother asked if he had heard her prayers. God answered, "Yes, my child I have. Can you do me a favor?"

"Anything, God," she answered.

"Can you at least buy one Lotto ticket?"

The moral of that story: "God helps those who help themselves."

After the chuckles and applause, Mount looked up from the podium to see a big man approaching, who said in a deep voice, "Son, I was moved by your speech, and my name is Jim Perry."

Judge Perry, then on the circuit court in Seminole County, told Mount that he went to Saint Augustine's University in Raleigh and went on to graduate from Columbia Law School.

"All I heard was Columbia Law School," recounted Mount, now a partner at Stuart, Mount, and Boylston in Eatonville, and vice chair of The Florida Bar's Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

The next week, Mount traveled with his family to Raleigh, North Carolina, to check out Saint Augustine's. While in a shopping mall, he got a call from Judge Perry: "Hey, Bruce. How was it?"

"I loved it," Mount answered.

"How would you like to be a presidential scholar? Full academic scholarship: tuition, room and board for four years," Perry offered.

Tears streamed down his face, as Mount stood in the middle of the mall, stunned.

"Of course! Thank you! How can I ever repay you?"

Judge Perry, who served on the board of trustees of Saint Augustine's, his alma mater, said: "Don't make me look like a fool."

Like a second father, Perry cheered as Mount played football for the Saint Augustine's Falcons, the same team he once played for. Mount played on the college golf team, too.

When it was time to graduate, Mount told him he didn't know what he wanted to do, but maybe law school.

"You are paralyzed by doubt," Perry told him. "If you apply, everything will work out."

Had it not been for Judge Perry's "leap of faith" in him, Mount said, "I probably would not be a lawyer. He made me press through."

Two years out of law school, when Mount was an assistant public...