{"id":134890,"date":"2026-01-28T13:02:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134890\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T13:02:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:02:06","slug":"jaxport-announces-unf-partnership-to-create-scholarship-honoring-coo-killed-in-i-10-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134890\/","title":{"rendered":"JaxPort announces UNF partnership to create scholarship honoring COO killed in I-10 crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Jacksonville Port Authority announced a partnership with the University of North Florida to create a scholarship in honor of Chief Operating Officer James Bennett, who died in a crash on Interstate 10 late last year.<\/a><\/p>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s City Council meeting, council members honored the life of Bennett, who worked with JaxPort since 2017 and had been on the Baker County Commission since 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cJames was a leader forJaxPort, he was a leader for Baker County, and he was a leader for Northeast Florida and we all appreciate the contributions he made and we all have deep sympathy for his family,\u201d Councilmember Nick Howland said.<\/p>\n

Bennett was killed in a crash on Dec. 8 while driving on I-10 eastbound<\/a>, west of U.S. 301. His Lexus sedan was rear-ended in traffic by an F-150. The impact slammed him into the inside guardrail and spun his car around.<\/p>\n

The 16-year-old driver of the pick-up truck suffered minor injuries.<\/p>\n

RELATED | Baker County community pays respects after Jacksonville Port Authority COO dies in crash<\/a><\/p>\n

Bennett oversaw JaxPort\u2019s two largest departments\u2014Operations and Engineering\u2014and as a member of the leadership team was the liaison for many of the port\u2019s partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe dedicated his life to transportation, improvements that strengthen the region, and improving the quality of life for the people of Northeast Florida,\u201d JaxPort Chief of Staff Beth McCague said.<\/p>\n

According to JaxPort, the scholarship will support UNF students pursuing a range of fields, including transportation, logistics, and engineering.<\/p>\n

For those who would like to contribute to the scholarship fund to honor Bennett, visit this website.<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Jacksonville Port Authority announced a partnership with the University of North Florida to create…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,42922,20680,9939],"class_list":{"0":"post-134890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news","11":"tag-james-bennett","12":"tag-jaxport","13":"tag-unf"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}