David Lawrence - A Dedicated Life: Journalism, Justice and a Chance for Every Child

Copyright 2018 David Lawrence Jr.

Published by Book & Book Press, an imprint of Mango Publishing, a division of Mango Media Inc.

Cover Design & Layout: Elina Diaz

Mango is an active supporter of authors rights to free speech and artistic expression in their books. The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to produce exceptional works that enrich our culture and our open society.

Uploading or distributing photos, scans or any content from this book without prior permission is theft of the authors intellectual property. Please honor the authors work as you would your own. Thank you in advance for respecting our authors rights.

For permission requests, please contact the publisher at:

Books & Books Press

Mango Publishing Group

2850 Douglas Road, 3rd Floor

Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA

For special orders, quantity sales, course adoptions and corporate sales, please email the publisher at or +1.800.509.4887.

A Dedicated Life: Journalism, Justice, and a Chance for Every Child

Library of Congress Cataloging

ISBN: (paperback) 978-1-63353-818-4, (ebook) 978-1-63353-819-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018941609

BISAC category code: BIO026000BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs

Printed in the United States of America

For Roberta and our children and their families
and everyones child and everyones family.

For Jane and Gerald Katcher, and Lawton Chiles.
It wouldnt have happened without them.

Contents

By Gov. Jeb Bush

T hroughout my time in government and politics, I have been blessed to meet thousands of passionate advocates for childrenteachers, parents, community aid workers, health care professionals and philanthropistsbut few have been as singularly committed to transforming the quality of life for all young children as David Lawrence.

This special book is the story of a good man who has lived an impressive, fascinating, full life dedicated to his family, his profession, his faith and his service to others, especially the youngest and most vulnerable among us.

Following in his fathers footstepsboth being inductees into the Florida Newspaper Hall of FameDavid pursued a career in journalism. He was a journalists journalist, during an era when the truth was not subjective, and when fairness and accuracy were prized above all else.

From his start at the St. Petersburg Times to his time as an editor at The Washington Post to his career-capping leadership as publisher of the Miami Herald , David brought integrity to the field, and to Florida journalism in particular. As such, I hope readers and newsmen and newswomen pay close attention to Davids advice regarding the future of journalism. The industry sure could use it.

As an adopted son of Miami, Im proud that it was our hometown that ignited and fostered Davids second careerthat as a leading advocate for early childhood development and school readiness. David retired as publisher of the Herald the year I took office as governor of Florida, in 1999. It is with joy and appreciation that I had the opportunity to work with him on a range of education and community issues during the course of my administration and in the years following.

David and I share a philosophy on education that is based on two simple principles(1) every life is a gift from God and (2) every child can learn. When this basic premise is embraced, it is a good start to building consensus and finding broad-based solutions.

Within months of his retirement from the Herald , David was able to convene five thousand Miami community leaders for a major summit tackling the most pressing issues facing our youngest citizens and their families, chiefly their early care and development. Davids efforts quickly grew into a statewide movement that eventually culminated in a successful 2002 constitutional amendment campaign to make voluntary prekindergarten (VPK) available to all four-year-olds in Florida.

Today, Floridas VPK program is the largest universal prekindergarten program in the nation and the largest school-choice program in America, with 175,000 students participating. We are one of only four states to offer such a program to all four-year-olds. As chair of The Childrens Movement of Florida, David continues his advocacy for early childhood education today and remains a leading state and national advocate on these issues.

Its an honor to call David not just a friend, but a mentor on these critical policy issues. I hope his story inspires many more to follow his path.

David has said his lifelong hunger has been for fairness, for justice, for decency, for love. Without a doubt, he has achieved these goals and more. Our state and countless Floridians, young and old, are better because he did.

~~~

A politician, businessman, and public education reformer, Jeb Bush served as Floridas 43rd governor from 1999 to 2007 and as a presidential candidate in 2016.

By U.S. Sen. Bob Graham

R eading David Lawrences autobiography, you will learn a lotfrom disemboweling chickens on an upstate New York farm, to the evolution of Miami from Miami Vice to a culturally and economically international city, to the travails of contemporary journalism. Reading this book is like listening to an old friend telling engaging stories while encouraging you to join the conversation.

Daves successful career in journalism is a story of the roller coaster of the American newspaper from the halcyon days of post-World War II to the dramatic changes and decline of today. For more than forty years, Dave was a journalist, rising from co-editor of his high school newspaper to editor or publisher of several of Americas most distinguished newspapers. At each, he inspired the highest standards of journalism built upon a deep immersion into the communities these newspapers served.

While engaged in an intense professional life, he and his wife Bobbie raised five charming and talented children. (In a spirit of full disclosure, one of those, the middle child, Amanda, was a valuable member of my Senate staff and legislative director during the final months. She turned off the lights in our Hart Senate Office Building office when I retired, and we left the building together for the final time.)

But the most lasting impression youll have will be of a highly principled man applying his talents and values in a transitioning America. Ultimately, he elects to transfer his lifelong fascination with journalism to civic advocacy for early childhood learning.

As one who has been asked, What are you going to do for the rest of your life? I recognize the answer to be among the most important self-defining phases of life: Maybe, nothing at all. Perhaps, a continuation of your former career, albeit at a reduced level. Or something that your life experience has prepared you for, but which other demands precluded you from pursuing.

At the age of fifty-six, Dave decided to embark on his new path with, in his words, newly energized purposefulness: that every child have a real chance to succeed. He motivated a mosaic of men and women to join his cause, established an institutional framework in which they could gather, and played a crucial role in passing a state constitutional amendment enshrining the centrality of early learning to a lifetime of success.

How he describes using the passion, persistence, and skills of civic engagement to accomplish these building blocks to success is worth the price of the book. To cement and broaden those achievements, Dave created a movement that has converted aspiration to reality and has, is, and will enrich the lives of thousands of the youngest Floridians. He has brought life to the truism of Frederick Douglass: It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.