He helped defuse the United States' biggest prison uprising, spent a decade restoring an iconic Key West cultural center and is now proposing to create a federal historical park around Miami's Freedom Tower.
But Coral Gables attorney Rafael Peñalver, 56, is uneasy with public praise for his community service successes. After all, he explains: ``The pro bono work I do is what fulfills me. It's what gives my life purpose.''
The seeds of that philosophy were planted by his parents, Rafael, a doctor, and Aurora, a pharmacist, but they bloomed the night of May 8, 1969, when he won a Silver Knight award for science as a 17-year-old senior from Christopher Columbus Senior High -- the school's first honoree.
For 50 years, The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald have presented the Silver Knight awards to high school luminaries in honor of their community service and academic excellence.
Peñalver remembers the win as a life-changing experience. ''It set me on a course in life where I realized the value of service, which is what the Silver Knight recognizes,'' he says.
Peñalver won with a global warming project that now seems ahead of its time -- a meteorological study to determine the impact of unchecked development on South Florida's water supply and temperature.
Even though he went into law, Peñalver said: ``I've always been interested in how to apply science to benefit the most amount of people.''
He puts that theory in practice as chairman of the board of trustees of the Dr. Rafael A. Peñalver State Clinic in Little Havana, which serves some 500 patients a day. ''The clinic mission is to provide quality health care that treats patients with dignity and respect,'' he says.
The clinic is named in honor of Peñalver's father, who paved the way for Cuban physicians to regain their medical license in the United States.
''We know that if this clinic wasn't here, these people would have nowhere to go for medical care except an emergency room,'' said staff doctor Roberto Garcia.
Peñalver also headed the Dade Heritage Trust's Save the Freedom Tower Committee in its battle to save the pink tower from being dwarfed by monolithic downtown condominium developments.
Peñalver did similar rescue work for the San Carlos Institute in Key West, a Cuban patriotic and educational center on Duval Street where Cuban patriot and poet José Martí came in 1892 to unite the exile community in its fight for independence from Spanish rule.
Since becoming its president in 1986, Peñalver fought for the building's $3 million state-funded restoration -- then had to ward off efforts by Cuban officials to take over the historic building. Today, the San Carlos Institute is beautifully restored and houses a museum, library, art gallery and school.
His dedication to Cuban history comes from his parents, who fled the island in 1961 with their four children, but didn't forget where they came from. ''Every Sunday my father would gather us and our friends to teach us about Cuban history and culture,'' he remembers.
Peñalver, the oldest, soaked up his heritage, but also prepared for the future. He quickly learned English and excelled in school. Tall and studious by high school, he was elected student body president the year he won the Silver Knight. After graduation, he went to the University of Miami and graduated from its law school in 1975.
As a young attorney, he was appointed to the state's Commission on Hispanic Affairs -- back then a solitary champion for Hispanics.
In 1983, Peñalver became its chairman and convinced then-Florida Gov. Bob Graham to give the commission new wings.
On the job, Peñalver first heard of a group of Mariel inmates who were fighting their indefinite detention at a federal prison in Tallahassee.
In 1987, the U.S. State Department ordered 2,500 of those inmates deported to Cuba. The news was met with violence. Desperate, shiv-wielding detainees seized control of two penitentiaries, one in Atlanta, the other in Oakdale, La. They took 150 prison guards and other law enforcement personnel as hostages.
For a week, the inmates held firm. As the situation escalated, federal officials called in the Delta Force to storm in, if necessary.
Facing what is today considered the largest prison uprising in U.S. history, federal officials sought help from Cuban exile political leaders, but those efforts failed.
The detainees then asked for the intervention of Bishop Agustin Roman, a long-time advocate against indefinite detention. The bishop asked Peñalver to head the negotiations with the Justice Department, the Bureau of Prisons, the State Department and the White House.
On Thanksgiving Day, the two flew to Washington, D.C., and Peñalver presented his plan, which included guaranteeing limited due process rights to the detainees and individual review of their cases.
''Our objective was to obtain the safe release of the hostages and to bring justice to the detainees,'' Peñalver said. U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese reluctantly agreed and gave the two men permission to negotiate.
At Oakdale, the two men were taken by helicopter onto the prison grounds. Peñalver said the prisoners listened to Roman when he asked them to put down their prison-made knives -- one that Peñalver still has as a memento.
''I've never seen anything like it,'' Peñalver said. ``They surrendered the weapons and released the hostages one by one.''
The two men then flew to the Atlanta penitentiary, where negotiations were more tense. Ignoring warnings that their lives were in danger, Peñalver and Roman entered the prison compound unarmed and approached the inmates with their plan -- and persuaded them to surrender.
Peñalver kept his promise to the inmates.
''For the next 10 years of my life, I worked on the review of thousands of cases,'' he said, and helped carry the battle against the indefinite detention of the Mariel detainees all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
''Release was obtained in 80 percent of the cases reviewed and the rate of recidivism has been minimal,'' he said.
In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled the indefinite detention of Mariel inmates was unconstitutional.
Today, Peñalver and his wife, Ana, have two children, Ana Maria, 5, and Ralphie, 4. He has a real estate/international law practice with his sister, Aurora. ''My wife and kids are the pride and joy of my life,'' he said.
Prison revolts, exile struggles and helping the needy find medical care have given meaning to his life, he said. But winning the Silver Knight that night is still a personal highlight, he said.
He remembers the celebration at school the next day for him and two other Columbus winners -- Raymond Dunn, who won for speech, and Joseph Burke, who received an honorable mention for general scholarship.
He keeps his Silver Knight statue in his office. And people who grew up in South Florida often recognize it, he said:
'They'll say: `Wow. You're a Silver Knight winner.' ''
