Broxson was instrumental in funding UWF

Submitted photo John Broxson (right) greets friend President Jimmy Carter during the Commander-In- Chief's visit to Pensacola in the 1970s. John Broxson was serving his first term in the Florida House of Representatives in 1963 when he and several other Northwest Florida Representatives decided it was time to end the 'talk' and take action on having a public university in the Panhandle.

"There had been talk for years about putting a university - or even a community college - in the Panhandle. I called it the 'pyramids of study and promises,' " Broxson said recently as he reflected on his 50-plus years in public service.

Today, Broxson, 76, turns over his Santa Rosa County District 5 Commission seat to Navarre attorney Lane Lynchard.

"Any governor of Florida at that time held a lot of power, and if you wanted something done you had to get in to see the governor personally," Broxson recalled. "Legislators — and other folks — would line up outside his office and wait for hours for the chance to have a meeting with the governor.

"So about three of us from this area finally got a meeting and started outlining all the reasons we needed a university here. The governor (C. Farris Bryant) was under time pressure, like he always was, and finally said, 'OK, I will think about it.'

Submitted photo John Broxson (top, right center) is most proud of the large family he and wife Chris have the good fortune to enjoy. "But I wouldn't give up. I was determined we were not leaving that day until he said he would do it, which he finally did just to get rid of us and get me - us - to stop talking," Broxson laughed.

Bryant wrote into his budget the money to put a university in Northwest Florida - and the groundbreaking for University of West Florida (UWF) in Pensacola was held in 1966. Several years later, Broxson himself earned a Master's degree in education from UWF.

Broxson decided to run for the Senate in 1964.

"I ran too soon for the Senate," he said. "I ran against Clayton Mapoles, who was Byrd Mapoles' daddy, and he was very popular. I lost. So it was back home to work with our family business," he said.

That's when the family moved from Milton to Gulf Breeze.

"I saw some real opportunity in Gulf Breeze. It was a growing community, and I thought there was a real future down here. So we bought our first little house in Gulf Breeze for $14,000," Broxson recalled.

"That's when we started our real estate and insurance business in Gulf Breeze. We lived in that house until 1970, when we moved to Villa Venyce and bought a home we lived in for 22 years."

Broxson and his wife, Chris, sold that home in 1992 and moved to their current home in Midway.

"Reuben Askew, who was a state Senator back when I was in the House and later became governor, had asked me to consider running for the Senate again at a later date. So when Clayton Mapoles decided he was not going to run again for the term beginning in 1966, Mapoles came to our home and said he was taking me personally to Tallahassee to qualify to run for his Senate seat," Broxson said. "So after Chris and I talked about it, and after only about a year back at home fulltime, we started a campaign - again."

Broxson won a seat in the Florida Senate and kept it from 1966 to 1972.

"That is when the real busy work of revising the Florida Constitution was happening," he said. "There was a big outcry in Florida from the citizens for change. I took several trips during that time to California with a delegation to see what they were doing. California was growing at a fast pace, just like Florida, and we got a lot of our ideas from them - especially about transportation.

"Then there were many trips to Washington, either to ask for help from our representatives there, or to talk to people to figure out how to re-write the Constitution."

Broxson also was appointed to some state committees that traveled to Washington to work with other states.

"I worked on the committee that was trying to change some national laws to accommodate handicapped people in public places," he said. "I was very privileged to play a role in the formation and adoption of the Disabilities Act that dealt with quality of life issues for handicapped people throughout the whole country."

Broxson said one of the other things he was most proud of helping change inside the state was giving the county commissions in Florida home rule.

"Until 1968, the county commissions did not have power to do much of anything," he said. "They could set budgets of their departments, but anything beyond that they had to get permission from us at the state level. And the state legislators even told them how much money they could spend. If they wanted anything at all, they had to go to Tallahassee with hat in hand.

"I thought that was so wrong," Broxson said. "I had seen what my dad went through trying to help people here without much power to do anything, and I knew that the local county commissioners knew better than Tallahassee what needed to be done in their own counties. I had seen close up the fallacy of county commissions not having Home Rule.

"And it was the same with the school districts. Everything was decided in the state capitol. So a group of us fought hard to get that changed. In 1968, Home Rule for counties was written into the Florida Constitution. We said at that time that each county government and each municipality and every school board could levy up to 10 mills each and make decisions for their own operations at the local level. I don't believe Santa Rosa County has ever levied the full 10 mills we were allowed."

When the changes were made to the state Constitution in 1968, legislators also decided they needed to be in session more than once every two years, and they also gave themselves a raise.

"We suddenly went from $100 a month to $12,000 a year. Chris and I rented a house in Tallahassee so when the family came down we had a place big enough for everyone," Broxson said.

Then, in 1969, oil was discovered in Santa Rosa County.

"That was exciting, but I realized real quickly that there would be a lot of money coming into the state's coffers from that oil," Broxson said. "Of course, we didn't know if the oil would keep flowing a few weeks or months, or for years to come. But I decided right away that Santa Rosa County needed a portion of that oil revenue to use back home. So I made sure legislation was passed right away to give a portion of the state's oil revenues - the taxes - back to Santa Rosa County, even if it amounted to no more than a few hundred dollars. And the oil money coming back to the county was then to be divided 50/50 between the county government and the school board.

"It ended up being millions of dollars, and the oil gushed for a little over 10 years," he said. "That is what gave the school system here such a great start, and that is what kept our county taxes so low for so long.

"But I also commend past county commissions for not using all the oil revenues up, so when Hurricane Ivan hit we still had about $5 million in reserves from that money. That is how we were able to recover and repair so quickly. But we used it up then - so it is gone now. If we were hit again like that, I don't know what we would do."

During Broxson's Senate service from 1966 to 1972, he became friends with Lawton Chiles, who later became governor.

"I was a Democrat in those days, but very conservative, like many old southern Democrats were then," Broxson recalled. "Once I left the Senate and had helped Lawton get re-elected, then elected as Governor, he kept me so busy he ran me to death, appointing me to all kinds of commissions. The Lottery Commission was one, and I served a few years as Lottery Commission Chairman for him."

The Broxsons also were involved with helping with campaigns of other political leaders, including Jimmy Carter.

"We became friends with Jimmy and his family and were visitors to the White House quite a few times, Chris recalled. "The kids really enjoyed one trip we made there when we got to have a barbecue picnic on the South Lawn with the Carter family. We used to go and watch movies with them there and just had some great times."

Broxson has a cherished Bible that is engraved on the front "Air Force One" and is signed on the dedication page to John from Jimmy Carter.

From 1972 until 2004, when Broxson ran for and won a seat on the Santa Rosa County Commission, he worked on many boards and commissions, locally and nationally, and the family owned and ran several businesses. His service included Chair of the Florida Community Education Foundation for three years, member of the Florida Education Commission of the States, Florida Governors Advisory Council on Criminal Justice for Region 1, member of the State Health Care Board, Pensacola Community College Board of Trustees, Southeastern Universities Board of Directors in Lakeland, initial Board of Trustees for Gulf Breeze Hospital, president of the University of West Florida Foundation, and founding president of the Panhandle Tiger Bay Club.

He and Chris currently own and operate Bay West Realty in Gulf Breeze. They formerly owned and operated other Gulf Breeze businesses including Majestic Construction, was former owner of Fisher-Pou Funeral Home in Pensacola, former owner of Forest Lawn Funeral Home & Cemetery in Gulf Breeze (now Rose Lawn), former owner of John Broxson & Associates Insurance and Real Estate, and former owner of Bayview Memorial Park in Pensacola.