Roy C. Palmer, Class of 1962

Retired real estate lawyer and philanthropist

Now retired, Roy Palmer worked for the Federal Trade Commission and Illinois Savings and Loan Board before moving on to his private law practice. He found considerable success in the Native American gaming industry, using his real estate experience to establish casinos on reservations throughout the country. In 1990, he retired from the practice of law and went on to head a variety of real estate development ventures. Active in both the corporate and nonprofit worlds, he has served as director of Harris Bank/Bank of Montreal in Sarasota, FL, and he and his wife, Susan, were the recipients of the 1997 Outstanding Individual Philanthropist Award of the National Society of Fundraising Executives.

A member of the Chicago-Kent Board of Overseers, Palmer has been one of the law school’s most generous alumni and volunteers. He and Susan established the Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize at Chicago-Kent in 2007 to honor a work of scholarship exploring the tension between civil liberties and national security in contemporary American society.