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Be sure to read about (and listen to) the incredible life story of JU Trustee and leading Jacksonville philanthropist Bob Shircliff, highlighted today on local airwaves and in print.
The Daily Record’s Managing Editor Karen Brune Mathis interviewed Shircliff for “First Coast Success,” a regular segment on the award-winning 89.9 FM flagship First Coast Connect program, hosted by Melissa Ross.
The interview aired this morning (Monday, March 18) and will be replayed at 8 p.m. today on the WJCT Arts Channel, or online at www.wjctondemand.org.
Shircliff, 84, and his wife, Carol, remain very active in Jacksonville’s philanthropic community. His business career and support of St. Vincent’s HealthCare, Jacksonville University, The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, the Jacksonville Symphony and more is highlighted in the interview.
He moved to Jacksonville in 1967 and later sold his bottling companies to General Cinema Corp. He then created Robert T. Shircliff and Associates, which several years later became The Shircliff Group, according to the Daily Record article.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview in which he talks about his philanthropic motives, JU and its new president, 1981 graduate Tim Cost:
How do you choose the causes that you support?
It all goes back to example and faith. At St. Vincent’s, for example, I see an opportunity to support programs that serve the poor. One of the very first things the sisters there, the Daughters of Charity, told me 40 years ago when I went on the board was, ‘Look, we want the best health care for everybody. The poor people come in and get the same rooms as the well-to-do, and the well-to-do get the same rooms and the same nurses and the same care. We treat everybody.’
It goes back to the ancient tradition that says we save our best silver for the poor. You can just see and feel the good that a little help provides. That is what I have found so exciting about St. Vincent’s.
It is also true at United Way. I like to see the quality of life through the Symphony and Cummer. I like JU. It is a private wonderful school and the business school there professes free enterprise in a really beautiful way and the graduates do very well. The new president of JU is a graduate and I had the honor of signing his diploma when he graduated because I, at that time, was chairman of the board. I’ve got a little piece of the action out there because I can always get that diploma back.
The Catholic schools are the same way. The Guardian of Dreams, we educate 400 kids a year. We change lives.
When you can change lives with a little bit of time and a little bit of money, that makes a happy day.
Excerpts from The Daily Record interview can be read by clicking here.