Hundreds gathered Friday at Greater Macedonia Baptist Church to honor the life and legacy of former State Representative and Jacksonville City Councilman Terry Fields.<\/p>\n
Fields died earlier this month at the age of 66 after a brief illness. From City Hall to the State Capitol, those who knew him say his leadership and mentorship changed lives across Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
During an emotional service filled with music and reflection, friends, former colleagues, and students remembered a man who wore many titles, but whose greatest role, they said, was servant leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cTerry liked leadership. Terry liked working with people,\u201d said former City Council member Pat Locket-Felder.<\/p>\n
Fields represented District 14 in the Florida House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008. Before that, he served on the Jacksonville City Council from 1991 to 1999. But beyond politics, many said his heart was always with people. \u201cThere\u2019s so much he did for our city and our state,\u201d said honorary City Council member Stephanie Jones, who knew Fields for more than 50 years. Friends said he had a way of pushing people to be their best, sometimes unexpectedly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to get upset by a couple of things. And he\u2019d say hey, let’s talk. He always brought me from left or right back to the middle,\u201d said Coach Jacobs, an educator who worked alongside Fields and will now take over his mentorship program.<\/p>\n
In the classroom at Duval Charter School Westside, Fields made learning come alive. Teaching, Jones said, was \u201chis real true passion.\u201d<\/p>\n
He mentored a group of students focused on uplifting young men, something his students said left a lasting impression.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s really the reason why I love history. He was like, funny,\u201d said ninth grader Raeshaun Grayson.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was like a drill sergeant, a funny one, really,\u201d added seventh grader Mary Fox.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a personality that like he didn’t care about what other people thought of him. He was more of the one to share his perspective, and he’s not afraid to do so,\u201d said seventh grader Lea Pollydore.<\/p>\n
Fields\u2019 mentorship extended far beyond the classroom. Locket-Felder said she\u2019ll miss the early morning calls urging her to get up and get moving.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m gonna miss those calls early in the morning. When he says, get up. I give you 30 minutes to be dressed, and let’s go out to breakfast,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
His dedication to service never seemed to slow down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, he never stopped working for others. He put himself aside. I oftentimes wonder, did he ever have any personal time, any time for himself?\u201d said crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson, who knew Fields for decades.<\/p>\n
Those closest to him said his influence now lives on in the people he taught, guided, and inspired.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m gonna miss Terry,\u201d Locket-Felder said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds gathered Friday at Greater Macedonia Baptist Church to honor the life and legacy of former State Representative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[832,116,4040,118,117,47914,78185,77535],"class_list":{"0":"post-163497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-city-council","9":"tag-jacksonville","10":"tag-jacksonville-city-council","11":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","12":"tag-jacksonville-news","13":"tag-mentorship-program","14":"tag-stephanie-jones","15":"tag-terry-fields"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163497","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=163497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}