Clay Today staff
ORANGE PARK – The Garden Club of Orange Park Inc. made history last week when it elected Robert “Bob” Miller its first male president in the club’s 60-year history.
But ask Miller, a retired military officer and ship building company executive, about the history angle and you’re more likely to get a one-liner than a serious answer.
“I told them our meetings would be run according to Robert’s Rule of Order, and I’m Robert,” he said with a smile after being formally sworn in to a two-year term.
Miller seems very comfortable with his new role of president, who is elected by the executive officers from each garden circle. Briefly speaking to officers from the club’s seven garden circles he outlined the different subcommittees and their purpose.
“I want to thank you for this opportunity,” he said.
Outgoing president Jean Schneider said Miller’s election as president is a sign of changes in society and the culmination of a trend that began years before.
Miller, 78, was president of the Eagle Circle for the past two year. The group is made up of several couples and professionals, and is the only garden circle among the seven that meets at night.
“I think he will be a good leader for us,” Schneider said.
Miller “blames” his wife, Mary, for his participation in the club and his ascendance to president. She is a former Garden Club president herself, serving four years in the 1990s when the club firmly established its Stowe Avenue site and built a permanent clubhouse there.
“I am going to rely on my past president wife a lot,” Miller said. The couple, who has three sons, moved to Orange Park in 1993 from Washington, D.C., where he was a vice president for military shipbuilder M. Rosenblatt & Son.
Coordinating the club’s many subcommittees is the president’s primary duty – a job Miller compared to “herding a bunch of rabbits.”
Asked why he was selected, Miller deadpanned: “I was the one that ran the slowest.”
Named as his officers were: Helen Howard, treasurer; Carolyn Warren, corresponding secretary; Rachel Wilson, recording secretary; Sylvia Jameson, third vice president; Shirley Dewey, second vice president; and Art Burnett, first vice president.
Among recent Garden Club projects are landscaping six Habitat for Humanity Homes and building a butterfly garden at the entrance to Camp Chowenwaw, the new county park on U.S. 17 just north of Green Cove Springs.
