What I’ve Learned
Lenny Curry 52, Jacksonville Mayor of Jacksonville, Dad As told to Rosanne Dunkelberger
THE ORIGIN STORY
I was born in Key West. I’m a seventh-generation Conch. My dad ended up down there because his father was in the Navy. (When) my grandfather got out of World War II, he wanted to go as far south in the U.S. as he could so he went down (to) Key West and met my grandmother and settled. My mom was multi-generational. I was there until I was 12 years old. You’re always in the sun, you’re always in the water. That was the ’70s, so doors were unlocked. We were out running the streets all night riding bikes and playing games. It was a really fantastic time. It was hard to leave. My dad’s parents had settled in Orange Park and we wanted to get closer to them … so we moved to Middleburg, Florida, which was very rural at the time. We lived one mile down a dirt road. I’m a graduate of the University of Florida. ... My kids want to go to FSU, but that’s another story.
WORK LIFE
I earned my bachelor’s degree in accounting and was in the master’s program when I left to do an internship at what was then Coopers & Lybrand. I felt like I was making so much money in the internship, I talked them into hiring me full time. I took the CPA exam in Georgia and passed it. Probably interesting fact: I sat for the first CPA exam where they let you use a calculator. Coopers & Lybrand merged with Price Waterhouse and became PWC. I was a senior manager there; the next step was partner. Another senior manager and I were working late one night — probably about 11 p.m. We worked a lot of hours in those days. We were making really good money at our age. He did some quick math on a piece of paper
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INFLUENCE Spring 2023