KENNETH ROBINSON
PRESIDENT, DR. PHILLIPS CHARITIES, ORLANDO
Dr. Phillips Charities is Central Florida’s largest grant-making organization. It is the legacy of Dr. Philip Phillips, once the state’s largest citrus producer. The charity makes grants to organizations focusing on educational programs, cultural programs and children and youth services and also supports groups that seek to preserve the free enterprise system and protect private property rights. “This past year we achieved a major milestone of $200 million in grants to our community,” Robinson says.
| EDUCATION | Florida State University (BA) |
| CIVIC EFFORT | The foundation is converting a 204-acre site called the Packing District — which Dr. Phillips owned since the 1920s — into a mixed-use community with a 60-acre regional park, tennis center, 20-acre urban farm, YMCA, multifamily and retail components. |
| SOMETHING SURPRISING | I have been married 36 years. My wife, Cindy, and I grew up together from age 9. Growing up, our families all rode motorcycles together in the woods of Brooksville and in North Carolina. |
| READING | A Land Remembered, by Patrick Smith. It is a great Florida fiction book, and for me it relates closely to Dr. Phillips, who first came to Florida in 1895 to raise cattle and grow citrus. |