Sid Gefen
By Laura Jane Pittman Resident Community News Sid Gefen is a bundle of energy. At 93, his health can often be frustrating, but it doesn’t slow down his enthusiasm, drive, and dedication to help better the city he has called home for 72 years. Gefen is still a sought-after, popular leader and advocate who excelled […]
Neil Presser – Avondale Liquor & Wine Family Business
By Julie Kerns Garmendia Resident Community News Jacksonville and its beaches have always drawn Northerners eager to leave the cold behind for sunshine and better opportunities. That was exactly what motivated the first of Neil Presser’s relatives to relocate to Jacksonville during the Great Depression. “My late mother, Lillian Fink Presser, had two brothers, Ben […]
Ila Rae Merten
By Victoria Register-Freeman Resident Community News Ila Rae Merten is a transplant into the Historic District, not a native plant. Still, her almost half a century residence in the District gives her deep struck roots. Arriving in Jacksonville from Okeechobee in the early ‘70s, Merten was unaware of the Riverside area. “I chose Arlington […]
Robert C. Broward
By Victoria Register-Freeman Author and award winning architect Robert C. “Bob” Broward stood recently in his former San Marco office and greeted family, friends, former colleagues and admirers. The office, repurposed by his daughter Kristanna Broward Barnes and architect Catherine Duncan, is now available for rent as creative space to architects, engineers, contractors, graphic designers, […]
Paula Denman Webb
By Laura Jane Pittman Resident Community News When San Marco resident Pauline Denman Webb was sent to the small Pacific island of Tinian during World War II, she truly didn’t understand the magnitude of the war she had entered. Tinian had been captured by U.S. forces in July of 1944 and soon became one […]
Marsha Leibo Pollock and Deborah Mizrahi Katz – Junior High and Beyond
By Laura Jane Pittman Resident Community News When Marsha Leibo Pollock and Deborah Mizrahi Katz entered junior high together, the two had already been friends for many years. They recall their remaining years of school to be equally as fun as the first ones. Their 7th grade classes met in Swaim Memorial Methodist because it […]
Tommy Madison
Standing in his glass enclosed river room high above the St. Johns, Tommy Madison looks like a captain on the bow of his ship. His Beau Rivage view encompasses the skyscrapers of Downtown and sweeps south to the Naval Air Station. His personal geography is spread out below him. “I was born in 1931 and […]
Marsha Leibo Pollock & Deborah Mizrahi Katz
Part 1 – The Elementary School Years By Laura Jane Pittman Resident Community News There is nothing sweeter than childhood friendships. Marsha Leibo Pollock and Deborah Mizrahi Katz go way, way back – all the way back to grade school. They were both born and raised here, and they have stayed close. Katz recently retired […]
