Item P03
Kevlsed 21'::)')
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY
Meeting Date: February 21,2001
Division:
County Administrator
Bulk Item: Yes
No X
Department: County Administrator
AGENDA ITEM WORDING: Approval of an appointment to the Historic Preservation Commission.
ITEM BACKGROUND: David Harum of the Historic Preservation Commission has resigned. The
Administrator's Office requested recommendations for this vacancy. Jim Clupper and Jerry Wilkinson
have been recommended (resumes attached).
PREVIOUS REVELANT BOCC ACTION:
As stated above.
STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS:
Approval of an appointment.
TOTAL COST: -0-
BUDGETED: Yes
No
COST TO COUNTY: -0-
REVENUE PRODUCING: Yes
No
AMOUNT PER MONTH
Year
APPROVED BY: County Atty _
OMB/Purchasing _ Risk Management _
~ ~Sx?/l.
, ~ ---J-
James L. Roberts
DIVISION DIRECTOR APPROVAL:
DOCUMENTATION:
Included X
To Follow
Not Required
DISPOSITION:
AGENDA ITEM # W
Feb 01 20 02:1Sp
Commissioner Williams
(3051 289-S30S
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MONROE COUNTY PUBl.IC LIBRARY
HELEN W ADLEV
ISLA MORADA COMMUNITV BRANCH
MEMORANDUM
TO:
fROM.
DATE:
SUBJ:
Dixie Spehar. County Commissioner
Jim Cluppcr. Branch Manager
lap 23. 2001
Anaebed
Here is a short personalll. professional remme to f2cilitate my nomination to the
Historical praervation Board.
1 am CUlTflIIlly employed by Momoe County as Branch Maoager of the lslamorada
Libr2l)', a positioa t have bdd for some I Z years. During that time, 1 have become an
avid stUdent of Florida Keys history, and have built aWlle" impressive collection of
historic:aJ literature and doa.unents here at the library.
, lID cummly OD tbe 80uds ofOinlctors for both Florida Keys Discovery and the
ArehaeologiQI and Historical Conservancy aD Miami.
I oonsidcr myself an amaturc historian and archaeologist. and would consider it an honor
to 5efVe on the Historical Preservation Commission.
to'd
6Z ;01 H30Z-~Z-Nl::lf
.----
TOTAl P, 01
Jim Clupper
Jim Clupper is currently employed as the Branch Manager of the Islamorada
Branch, Monroe County Public Library, where he has been employed for the
past 12 years. Raised in South Florida (Miami), he has been an Upper Keys
resident since 1985. As 1m amateur historian and archaeologist, he has a
strong interest in local history. He is currently a member of the Boards of
Directors for both the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy in Miami
and Florida Keys Discovery here in Monroe County. Additionally, he holds
a seat on the Land Acquisition Advisory Committee for the Village of
Islamorada. He .looks forward eagerly to serving in this new capacity.
MONROE COUNTY
BOARDS & COMMITTEES
BOARD OR COMMITTEE: Historic Preservation Commission
COMMISSIONER APPOINTING MEMBER:
Murray E. Nelson
District Five
DATE OF APPOINTMENT: February 21. 2001
TERM OF APPOINTMENT: Three years
APPOINTEE'S NAME: Jerry Wilkinson
MAILING ADDRESS: 38 East Beach Road
Tavernier. FL 33070
PHONE: Home: 852-1620
Fax: 852-1620
Biography of Jerry Wilkinson
Jerry Wilkinson is a fourth generation Floridian, born in Lakeland, Polk County,
Florida. Attended school at Lakeland High School, owned and operated a portable roller
skating rink that moved throughout Florida. Moved to Key West in 1947 and joined the
Army Air Corps in 1948. Retired after 24 years of active service and owned and operated
a chain of full-service carwashes in Miami-Dade County. Moved to Key Largo in 1977
and traveled extensively.
Jerry became involved in historic preservation of the Upper Florida Keys in 1988
when the remains of the 1880 community of Planter were to be razed for the construction
of five large condominium buildings. As a result he wrote articles for The Free Press
newspaper that lead to joining the Historical Preservation Society of the Upper Keys, Inc.
in 1990. The Society was basically inactive and its Florida incorporation charter had
lapsed. He was elected to the Board of Trustees and its president in 1991, a position he
continues to hold.
He reactivated the Society's state incorporation nonprofit charter, bylaws and
IRS 501 (c)3 not for profit status. He began writing scheduled weekly historic articles for
local newspapers in June 1992. His Old Timer's Christmas article was the front page in
the Christmas edition of The Free Press newspaper. He wrote a total of 86 weekly
articles for The Reporter newspaper. When completed he assembled, copied and
produced at his expense the articles in book form (A Bit of Keys History) for each of the
five Monroe County branch libraries and the local Coral Shores High School library.
The collecting of Upper Keys photographic images had been a hobby since 1988
from which he begin making slides for presentations. Using a donated slide projector
from the Rotary Club and a screen from the Kiwanis Club, he gave historical slide
presentations to the various professional organizations, sororities and clubs, but with
emphasis to the Monroe County school system. He has greatly increased his image
collection which he shares with authors and media's desiring Upper Keys imagery. His
first national project was to assist The Weather Channel disaster series with images and
consultation of the disastrous 1935 Hurricane. In 1997 he was consultant and participant
in a 22 minute 1935 hurricane program aired numerous times by PBS (Hurricane '35 -
The Deadly Deluge.) In 1999 he was the consultant, interviewee and still-photo provider
for a similar disaster television series (The Wrath of God) for the History Channel.
In 1994 he became the Upper Keys coordinator (Region 9) for the joint
Smithsonian/Florida project of Save Outdoor Sculpture (SOS). He surveyed and
submitted a number of outdoor sculptures to the Florida Secretary of State for inclusion
in the program. One of which gained international attention as it was the only underwater
sculpture submitted. It was the Italian donated replica of the Mediterranean Sea's bronze
statue "Christ of the Abyss." At his expense he organized an underwater survey and
photographic team to measure, assess, document and photograph the statue which is in 25
feet of seawater in the Atlantic ocean near John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.
During this time he was appointed to the 1995 Monroe County Sesquicentennial
Coordinating Committee to celebrate Florida's 150th birthday. He took this very serious
as a fourth generation Floridian and organized a special celebration at the Cheeca Lodge.
to commemorate the event. For an unique event he and his wife made a large replica of
Florida's first flag which was mounted on his pickup truck. They drove up and down
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highway US-l flying the unique flag (It contained the words "Let Us Alone.") throughout
the Upper Keys on March 3, 1995. Later, used as a float, this simple entry won honorable
mention in the 1995 Fourth of July Upper Keys parade.
What began as a tribute to Florida's 150th birthday, in 1995 Jerry produced and
presented five televised programs on channel 16, Monroe County's local cable television
channel. They were Florida's Birthday, Life and Times of Henry Morrison Flagler,
Flagler's Folly, The Key West [railroad] Extension, The Overseas Highway and The
Florida Keys Memorial.
As a serious researcher with a desire for "Truth in History", he collected four file
cabinets and many boxes of documents plus shelves of publications. Many were ordered
from the National Archives and the Library of Congress at his expense. Using this data
and his images, he successfully nominated the Florida Keys Memorial, known locally as
the Hurricane Monument and the Lignum Vitae Key historic site to both the National
Register of Historic Places and the Monroe County histOiic register. The two Upper Keys
1938 hurricane-refuge schools are presently being nominated for inclusion in the
National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Data is being gathered for the
nominating criteria to the Florida Secretary of State for the Leo Johnson house,
Islamorada's oldest house and only 1935 Hurricane surviving private residence. He has
successfully placed the Seven-mile Bridge, Bahia Honda Bridge and Long Key Bridge,
Pigeon Key, 1880 community of Planter and Indian Key historic sites on the Monroe
County historic register.
In 1996 the Monroe County Girl Scouts wanted to create their own IS-mile
historic hike for a merit patch. Previously they had to travel to Miami-Dade County and
participate in their hike. Jerry laid out a safe route that contained 22 historic sites,
prepared site descriptions and associated imagery for displays at each location, prepared a
route map with a brief site description for each hiker and a detailed booklet for the more
interested participant. See attachment number 6. Hikers from all of Florida participated,
the Girl Scouts receiving a patch, Boy Scouts using it as a warm-up for their longer hikes,
High School students receiving extra credit and all others experience a walk through
time. Plans are presently in progress for its fourth year.
In 1997 the Florida Lighthouse Association was born at the relighting of the Cape
Florida Lighthouse after its partial destruction by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Jerry is
commissioner of district two which encompasses the Florida Keys lighthouses from the
Fowey Rocks Lighthouse offshore of Miami to the Dry Tortugas Lighthouse on Garden
Key west of Key West. He serves on the Board of Directors and the Executive
Committee.
In the summer of 1997 he prepared, edited and presented a sample 16-page
historic journal to the Board of Trustees proposing that a journal be published quarterly.
The title was History Talkfrom the Upper Florida Keys. The purpose was to record,
centralize, publish, dissimulate and store at multiple locations all available documentation
relating to the history of the Upper Florida Keys. Previous hurricanes, fires and general
laxity had destroyed all local collections. Its contents are simply a collection of recorded
historic facts gathered from archival and local sources outside of the Florida Keys. He
travels four to six weeks each summer to purchase, copy or in some manner retrieve
documented history. History Talk is mailed without charge to all Monroe County
Schools, public or private, to all Florida university campuses and local college media
{P AGE.2}
centers, as well as to all members of the Historical Society. Distribution has been
extended to any interested media center, the most recent being the Cross City
Correctional Institute's media center. The sixth edition is being prepared for publication.
The theme of the 1998 Upper Keys Fourth of July parade was History in the Keys
and Jerry Wilkinson was chosen as the Grand Marshal. He dressed as Henry Flagler, the
millionaire owner of the Florida East Coast Railway which constructed the railroad
through the Keys from 1905 to 1912.
He has re-enacted and portrayed several historic Keys notables hoping for a live
history presentation of Upper Keys history. These have been Dr. Henry Perrine, the
famous horticulturist who was massacred on Indian Key in 1840; Dr. John Gorrie, the
inventor of artificial refrigeration - one of the two Floridians whose statues are in the
Nation Hall of Statues; Henry Flagler the railroad magnate; Captain Dwight Sigsbee, the
captain of the USS Maine when it sank in Havana's harbor culminating the Spanish
American War, Zane Grey, America's first millionaire author who fished and wTote while
wintering on Long Key, the southern most island of the Upper Keys and Dr. William J.
Matheson, the wealthy chemist, industrialist, capitalist, lover of the outdoors and former
owner of Crandon Park, Matheson Hammocks Park and Lignum Vitae Key.
Using his computer he produced and distributed five booklets; Dr. Henry Perrine,
The Florida's Sesquicentennial, Dr. Benjamin Strobel, Conch Cookbook and The
Overseas Highway. The Life and Times of William J. Matheson is in progress.
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