TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Habitat Has New Chief Operating Officer

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

Highlands County Habitat for Humanity Chief Operating Officer John Hawthorne is in charge of the construction of the new office addition which will nearly double the current space in downtown Sebring.

ADVERTISEMENT

By JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: December 12, 2008

SEBRING - The Highlands County Habitat for Humanity affiliate has filled a brand new position, hiring John Hawthorne as chief operating officer to oversee its finances, home construction and ReStore operations.

Hawthorne, 60, said he decided to leave his last job as a deputy director of planning and development for the city of Sarasota and return to his birthplace, Sebring, after he was contacted by Michael Jacobson, executive director for the local Habitat affiliate.

They had worked together on Habitat affiliate projects in Sarasota, before Jacobson came to Highlands County.

He has a number of accomplishments to distinguish him, going way back to the days when Highlands County schools were still segregated and every black student in the county attended E.O. Douglass, where the school board buildings are now.

In his junior year, Hawthorne decided he would take a different school bus from his home in Highway Park and applied to attend Lake Placid High School. In 1966 he became the first black student to graduate from that school.

He said the teachers at E.O. Douglass were excellent for what they taught, but the school offered an inferior curriculum, not even offering higher math courses, and the only science class his school offered at that time was elementary biology, so he made the move.

"I never saw a new text book until I got to Lake Placid High," he said. "I was the only one in Lake Placid. It was very difficult because - it was something - whites and blacks had never been together in social settings or educational settings."

That same year two black girls decided to attend Avon Park High School and two black boys decided to attend Sebring High School.

"There were some die-hard segregationists," he said. "I was called every kind of name."

But it never escalated to violence.

He's the kind of person who makes friends easily.

"Some (white students) never did ever want to have anything to do with me, but the majority of the class treated me very well; and by the sheer force of my personality it was hard for them not to like me," he said with a grin.

He said he was compelled to sit in the back of his class as well as the back of the school bus.

"It was the times," he said. "When I got to class there was a seat reserved for me in the back of the room. But I got tired of that and eventually I moved to the front."

The same held true with riding the bus.

He graduated third in his class with honors, he said.

"It wasn't fun, but that experience molded me and shaped me for the rest of my life," he said.

He obtained his bachelor of science degree at Florida A&M University in 1971, majoring in physics and a minor in mathematics and electrical engineering.

In 1971 he entered the United States Army and in 1972 made section leader at a Pershing missile warhead detachment.

He holds the rank of lieutenant colonel retired reserve, after a total of 26 years of service. He attended numerous military schools that included a course on race relations, in Munich, Germany, and attended command and general staff officer college.

He holds many decorations, including the National Defense Service Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the Army Service ribbon, and the Meritorious Service Medal.

He worked as a zone manager for Ford Motor Company, a manufacturing manager for Procter and Gamble Company, and was the deputy director for the Department of Community and Economic Development,

Hawthorne was an incubator manager with Arthur K. Williams Business and Technology Center, and was the economic development, business and technology manager for the city of Albany, Ga., and owned his business, Hawthorne Enterprises Inc. in Albany.

He was also a vice president for South Albany Realty Development, LLC and has worked as an adjunct professor for Albany State University where he taught small business management, international business and organizational behavior and theory.

His wife Alice, who died in 1996 in Atlanta, Ga., was the one who encouraged him to get into redevelopment, he said.

He has since gotten remarried to his wife Iris Hawthorne. They have no biological children together, but each had four children - now adults - who do not live with them.

He said for five years he had worked on a community similar to Washington Heights called Newtown as the Newtown redevelopment director, for the city of Sarasota, with a specific focus on revitalizing that blighted community with a plan similar to the neighborhood plan that is being prepared here.

"The community was not ready for development," said Hawthorne, speaking of Newtown.

There were administrative issues, zoning and infrastructure was needed and the problems were dealt with for the first three years.

"We reached a point where it was ready for redevelopment," he said. "The designs and plans were ready; we had commitment from a bank, a major restaurant and franchises. But, we ran into problems with new city management."

New city management came in and did not appear as committed as previous city management to the project, he said. Then the economy dived, commitments began to unravel and he got aggravated and resigned in October.

"It will be a significant challenge for them to get back to the point we were at when we did have the commitment and support of the private sector," he added.

He arrived at Habitat four weeks ago with a mission in mind.

"I said to Mike, 'I will not come just to build low income single family homes, but I would come to help build a community,'" he said. "That includes housing, businesses, community facilities, youth programs and public safety.

"All of those elements have to be in place to successfully build a community."

Now that he's here, the construction manager and ReStore manager report to him, he said. He is considering the creation of a finance manager position who also would report to him and he is responsible for the overall office administration.

"We are acquiring the Rebuilding Together program - a non-profit doing minor repairs on properties within the county," he said, saying its new name will be ReHabitat.

He will be overseeing that program as well, once it is absorbed.

Highlands Today reporter Joe Seelig can be reached at 863-386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com .

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT