June 5, 2023
Florida Icon
Florida Icon: Vickie Smith
I can look out my bedroom windows on a full-moon night, and I can see the moon reflecting on the Weeki Wachee River. It’s heaven on Earth.
When I graduated...
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Published on 5/8/2023
Florida Icon: Peter Golenbock
Sports, in a way, is like joining a cult. It becomes very, very important in a wonderful way. I mean, where else can you sit in a stadium and scream your lungs out and not feel like a moron?
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Published on 4/10/2023
Florida Icon: Jenson Van Emburgh
My injury happened during birth. I came out the wrong way. The doctor put too much pressure on my spinal cord and it severed. My parents were told that I had no sensation or motor function from my armpits down and that I would be in a wheelchair for life.
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Published on 3/7/2023
Florida Icon: Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
Dancing was definitely a hallmark of my childhood. My sister and I danced at our local dance studio, and we started performing fairly young as part of a revue. These revues in the Black community usually had a comic MC, a flash act like the Nicholas Brothers, a tap dancer, an exotic dancer or a stripper, which was kind of like post-vaudeville burlesque. My sister and I, we were part of the kiddie act. I did that probably from age 7 or 8 until about 16 or 17.
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Published on 2/8/2023
Florida Icon: Mallory Lykes Dimmitt
Both of my parents are native Floridians, which is unusual. When I was a kid, we spent a lot of time outdoors, visiting state parks and paddling along rivers. My family is part of a ranching family, and we'd go to the ranch on certain weekends. We tried to be outside as much as possible. That definitely helped to shape my career interests and shaped what I do today.
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Published on 1/11/2023
Florida Icon: Craig Waters
When the internet came along, just as a personal hobby, I decided I was going to figure out how to create web pages. Later, I set up the first set of web pages for the Florida Supreme Court, and I continued to expand these web pages, which was very novel at the time. I knew I was innovating but didn't really understand the full extent of where it was going. A lot of the judges and attorneys at the time took a very dim view of the web, but Bush v. Gore was an event that started to change people's minds.
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Published on 12/7/2022
Florida Icon: Jim Strickland
I'm 67 years old, and at age 7, I wanted to be what I am now. I always just wanted to be on a horse.
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Published on 11/8/2022
Florida Icon: Penelope Bodry-Sanders
My mom and dad were living in Chicago when my mom saw an ad that included someone wearing a polka dot bathing suit, and she decided that she needed to move to Florida.
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Published on 10/7/2022
Florida Icon: Rhonda Shear
You can find love after 40. You can start a new career after 40. It's never too late to start over.
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Published on 9/6/2022
Florida Icon: Alicia Cervera
I have done 48 major projects in Brickell. My daughter Veronica says: ‘Mother, when I see the skyline of Miami, I see your name.' Sometimes when I drive on the causeway and I look over at the city, I feel so much joy to see that we've been able to contribute to Miami becoming a global city.
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Published on 8/11/2022
Florida Icon: Ashbel ‘Ash' Williams
(Former executive director/chief investment officer, Florida State Board of Administration, Tallahassee; age 67)
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Published on 7/8/2022
Florida Icon: Doretha Edgecomb
I grew up in Tampa in the Jim Crow era, so I lived in a very segregated world. Even as children, we understood that. Our schoolbooks were hand-me-downs from the white schools. Back then, you got a book and there was a page in the front where everybody who used that book would write their name. By the time we got them, there was no space to write your name.
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Published on 6/7/2022
Florida Icon: Randy Wells
We're at 51 years now, studying the dolphins of Sarasota Bay. When you're looking at a long-lived animal — and we've measured so far that our dolphins can live up to 67 years — having the ability to maintain continuity and consistency in how the data are collected, and getting people invested in the lives of these animals, is key...
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Published on 5/12/2022
Florida Icon: Clarence Anthony
I experienced racism at every point in my life, whether it was personal or professional. There were things that occurred that were traumatic, that would hurt your feelings, that would motivate you, as well, and that's how I tend to use those moments — to motivate me.
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Published on 4/5/2022
Florida Icon: Rita Case
Before Rick passed away, it was more like he was 70% charity and 30% of the business. I was more 70% running the business and 30% doing charity.
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Published on 3/8/2022
Florida Icon: Clarence Otis Jr.
We moved to California from Mississippi when I was a child, and from when I was in the second grade on, we lived in Watts. It was a unique neighborhood,...
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Published on 2/9/2022
Florida Icon: Christopher Still
"People are hungry to see where they live expressed in art."
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Published on 1/11/2022
Florida Icon: Robert Metzger
Transplant nephrologist; medical director, OurLegacy; Orlando, age 82
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Published on 11/30/2021
Florida Icon: Former farmer of the year Lynetta Usher Griner
Logging executive, cattle rancher, Levy County; age 65
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Published on 10/27/2021
Hall of Fame inventor Norma Alcantar
On her research: “Nobody really knows how the plaques in Alzheimer's disease form, so I thought that would be a niche for me.
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Published on 8/31/2021
Florida Icon: First Hispanic U.S. congresswoman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
“I'm very worried about the direction of our political discourse."
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Published on 7/30/2021
Dave Krepcho is a Florida Icon
The CEO of the Second Harvest Food Bank of in Central Florida talk about what drives him.
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Published on 6/29/2021
Karen Bell is a Florida Icon
What we do is so important. We feed people. It makes me proud just to be part of it.
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Published on 5/26/2021
Jack Payne is a Florida Icon
The No. 1 challenge in Florida is climate change, sea-level rise. There's research being done in South Florida...
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Published on 4/28/2021
Florida Icon: Richard Bowers
Richard Bowers shares his memories of coaching and growing up in a different era...
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Published on 3/29/2021
