Rudolph Leo Daniels

DANIELS Rudolph Leo Daniels was born May 29, 1927 in Jacksonville, FL to the late Sylvester and Marguerite Mackey Daniels. He was educated in the local public schools, and graduated Class President from Stanton High School Class of 1945. While a student at West Virginia State College, he was initiated into Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and graduated in the Class of 1951, with a commission as 2nd Lieutenant, US Army. He served his country in WW II and the Korean War. In later years he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel Artillery in the United States Army Reserves. After college, “Rudy” taught as a substitute teacher on science at A.L. Lewis Jr. High School, but went on to accept a job as Railway Postal Clerk with the US Post Office. Because of his initiative, while employed at the USPS in 1956, an inspection team investigated the local segregated facilities and issued an order to immediately integrate all US Postal facilities. Later he resigned from the USPS with Superior service. In 1957, Rudy challenged the personnel assignment to the segregated black Army Reserve Unit. Soon thereafter, the City of Jacksonville received its first racially integrated Army Reserve Unit with with Captain Daniels as the first black Commanding Officer. Under his command, the unit maintained a Superior rating annually and opened the door for all local reserve units to become fully integrated. Answering the call to greater service, Rudy resigned from the USPS to become Director of the Jacksonville Opportunities Industrialization Center. In 1976, Mayor Hans Tanzler appointed him Chief of the Manpower Division, City of Jacksonville and later he was appointed as the first black Community Department Head. To date, he remains the only black mayoral appointee in the history of the City of Jacksonville who has served the city continuously under the leadership of four mayors: H. Tanzler, J. Godbold, T. Hazouri, and E. Austin. For over fifty years Rudy maintained membership at Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, where he served as trustee. He was Past President and Charter Member of the West Virginia State University Alumni Association. Past President WJCT - Channel 7, Past Board Member, Duval-Nassau Coordinating Council, Past Vice President, Florida Community College at Jacksonville- Equal Employment Equal Access Commission , FCCJ-Criminal Justice Planning Commission, member of The Fla-Jax Club, Inc. Club Royal Ambassadors, Inc. and was a Life Member of the of the N. A. A. C. P. He received more than one hundred awards, certificates, plaques, and Citations for church, Community, career, and civic involvement during his life. A loving and devoted family man, he is survived by his wife, the former Alma Corlotta Monroe, whom he married in 1955; and from this union, two daughters, Michelle D. Brooks (Reuben) and Lisa D. Carey (Curtis). Granddaughters Lauren A. Brooks and Leslie A. Carey. Aunts Ida Mackey McNeil and Mary Hughes Mackey; cousins Albert and Pearl Mackey, Vivian Mackey, Bernard Mackey, David Mackey, Ben Daniels, Queen Esther Daniels; Numerous Cousins, other relatives and friends. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his name to the Mayo Clinic Research for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, 4500 San Pablo Rd., Jax., Fla. 32224. Make Checks payable to Mayo Clinic. A Memorial Service will be held at 10:00 AM Saturday, August 30, 2008 at the Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, 215 Bethel Baptist Street. With Pastor Rudolph W. McKissick, Sr. Officiating. The family will host a gathering of friends from 5 pm to 7 pm Friday (TODAY) at Corey-Kerlin Funeral Home, 1426 Rowe Ave. Please Sign the Guestbook @ Jacksonville.com