Jacksonville History

Alan Bliss is CEO of the Jacksonville Historical Society. In 2015, he was elected to the Society’s board, and in 2017 became board president. In 2018, the board appointed him as CEO. Bliss holds a Ph.D. from the University of Florida, and since 2006 he has taught U.S. history at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. His courses include urban history, maritime history, the Great Depression and the New Deal, Civil Rights, and proseminars on public history—all emphasizing Jacksonville. His research on modern Florida has won professional awards, and he consults widely on historic resources. In 2015 he authored a fifty-year history of Jacksonville’s Haskell Company.

Bliss’s memberships include Jacksonville’s Downtown Vision Alliance, the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce Downtown Council, the Urban Land Institute (North Florida Chapter), and the Naval Order of the United States. He is an active member of Riverside Presbyterian Church, where he chairs its Property Committee. From 2017-2019, Bliss served on the Board of Directors of Fonkoze, USA, Inc., a microfinance organization directed at assistance for Haiti’s rural ultra-poor. Before to returning to higher education, he worked in the real estate industry and as a commercial mariner. He is an experienced offshore sailor, and continues to enjoy boating on the St. Johns River and surrounding waters.

learn more at https://www.jaxhistory.org/