by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
At 12:30 Monday afternoon, with a very tentative ring of a bell, Willard Payne made just a little more Jacksonville history.
He became the first black to preside over the Rotary Club of Jacksonville.
Payne, the entrepreneur who rode McDonald’s franchises here to success, didn’t hesitate to challenge his membership.
“Rotary International’s motto for the year is ‘Lend a Hand,’ ” he said. ‘I want you to lend me a hand to your fellow Rotaries and to the people of the City of Jacksonville. We want this to be a better place to live.”
Following the club’s tradition of the president setting his course on his first day, he was the luncheon speaker at the Radisson meeting. And, none of the 200 or so in attendance could miss the significance of a day of diversity: he was introduced by former Jacksonville University Chancellor Fran Kinne, who became the 91-year-old club’s first woman president in 2000-01.
In a poem of introduction, Kinne referred to past years when acceptance may not have been as easy:
“We each became a token,
Willard a black, Fran a woman,
and our bonds have never been broken.”
(She also managed to rhyme the previously unrhymeable name of her native state, Iowa, with “I wouldn’t lie to ya.”)
Payne got through the meeting with only one glitch — he forgot to bring up members who passed their probationary period, but only one of the three showed up — and gave the goals for the year:
• To get membership up to 320 by the time that Jonathan Howe takes office at this time next year. The club is at 305 but will find itself with more than 15 spots to fill due to resignations and deaths.
• To partner with Martin Luther King Elementary School in a mentoring program. “I pledge my time,” said Payne. “We now have a program with Andrew Jackson High and I hope the symbolism of King and Jackson is apparent.”
• To continue the Rotary International programs pushing awareness of prostate and breast cancer. “We can’t cure anyone, but we can help people get early warnings.”
He also pledged to have “fun and comfortable” meetings which would encourage new members as well as increase attendance.
“We need to make a special effort to welcome our new members,” he said. “We have to match action with expectation. A person joining our club expects fellowship.”
Payne moved here in 1975 when he acquired several McDonald’s franchises. He sold those in 1997 and since has been in various investments, including several concessions at the airport.
He has served on numerous boards, both civic and charitable, and now is on the board of the Cathedral Oaks Foundation and the UNF Education Commission. he also is serving on Mayor John Peyton’s transition team.