DAVID LAWRENCE JR.
CHAIR, THE CHILDREN’S MOVEMENT OF FLORIDA, MIAMI
In 1996, Gov. Lawton Chiles asked Lawrence, then publisher of the Miami Herald, to lead a statewide task force on “school readiness.” Lawrence says he “came to think this spoke to the future of America” and retired in 1999 “to spend my full-time energies on getting children off to a better start in school and in life.” At the Children’s Movement, he says, “a dozen people work full time to help make children the No. 1 priority for public investment in Florida.”
| EDUCATION | University of Florida (BS) |
| SOMETHING SURPRISING | I am a sentimentalist, as optimistic and idealistic as I was 60 years ago. |
| ALTERNATE CAREER? | Elected public service. By age 15, I wanted either to be a journalist or a U.S. senator. |
| FAVORITE VACATION | In Bangladesh with my wife, sitting on a mat above dirt and discussing microlending with villagers |
| STAYING FIT | Walking four or five miles four times a week, always listening to a good book |