Thomas Rive McGehee, Sr. (July 12, 1924 – August 6, 2002) was a
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...
, business and civic leader who served on the boards of over twenty entities and founded the charity,
Dreams Come True.
[Bauer, David]
Florida Times-Union, August 7, 2002, “Dreams Come True founder dies at 78”
Early years
McGehee was born and raised in Jacksonville and served in the US Army during World War II. He was a corporal in the 8th Armored Division until his discharge in 1946, then attended
Jacksonville University
Jacksonville University (JU) is a private university in Jacksonville, Florida. Located in the city's Arlington (Jacksonville), Arlington district, the school was founded in 1934 as a two-year college and was known as Jacksonville Junior College u ...
and the
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...
, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry. He married the former Delia Houser Crawford in 1950. and they had two children, Thomas R. Jr. (Mac), and Delia Houser, II (Dede).
[Fitzgerald, Michael]
Jacksonville Business Journal, August 9, 2002, “McGehee funeral service held Thursday”
Business
Thomas's father, Clifford Graham McGehee, had founded the Jacksonville Paper Company in 1919, and after college, Thomas was dispatched to the company's mill in Louisiana to learn the paper manufacturing business. By 1956, he was president of the company, which was sold by the family in 1965. Tom and his brother Frank immediately started a new company,
Mac Papers
Mac Papers, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, is an industrial distributor of paper and printing supplies, packaging materials and equipment, facility supplies, and office products. The company is the largest supplier of pri ...
, to target the printing and graphics industries. The business was successful and expanded throughout 8 southeastern states. As of 2006, the firm recorded sales in excess of $500 million, employed 950 people and was one of the 50 largest private companies in the
Greater Jacksonville Metropolitan Area
The Jacksonville Metropolitan Area, also called the First Coast, Metro Jacksonville, or Northeast Florida, is the metropolitan area centered on the principal city of Jacksonville, Florida and including the First Coast of North Florida. According ...
.
Television
Tom and
Frank McGehee founded ''Christian Television of Jacksonville''. The non-profit purchased
Channel 47 before it was launched in August 1980 and requested the call letters, WXAO. "XAO" stood for "Christ, the alpha and the omega" in Greek. Their intent was to be an alternative to commercial television's sex and violence by broadcasting programs from
The PTL Club
''The PTL Club'', also known as ''The Jim and Tammy Show'', was a Christian television program that was first hosted by evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, running from 1974 to 1989. The program was later known as ''PTL Today'' and as ''Heri ...
,
Christian Television Network
Christian Television Network (CTN) is a non-profit broadcast television network of small owned-and-operated stations (O&O) that broadcasts religious programming. It is based in Largo, Florida (with a mailing address of Clearwater), and the flagshi ...
, and
Trinity Broadcast Network
The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its ...
. The station was Jacksonville's first 24-hour station, but never generated a large viewership and was sold in 1990 for approximately $3 million.
[Kerr, Jessie-Lynne]
Florida Times-Union, July 14, 2006, "Mac Papers co-founder was civic, religious leader"
Community
McGehee was active in civic endeavors in Jacksonville, serving as president of United Way in 1964. He was a member of the board of
Barnett Bank
Barnett Bank was an American bank based in Florida. Founded in 1877, it eventually became the largest commercial bank in Florida with over 600 offices and $41.2 billion in deposits. Barnett was purchased by NationsBank in 1997.Ginzl, David: "The ...
from 1961–1992 and served on the board of
Jacksonville University
Jacksonville University (JU) is a private university in Jacksonville, Florida. Located in the city's Arlington (Jacksonville), Arlington district, the school was founded in 1934 as a two-year college and was known as Jacksonville Junior College u ...
from 1959 until the late 1990s, including a stint as chairman in 1992. McGehee volunteered to help neighborhood groups like ''Friends of Five Points'' as often as more visible organizations, such as the Chamber of Commerce.
In 1996, McGehee and his wife made a $1 million gift to the
University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
veterinary school to build an Equine Reproduction Facility which was named in honor of their daughter Dede, a veterinarian and UF alumnae.
Charitable foundation
Tom McGehee, along with
J.J. Daniel, Robert Feagin, and Laurence Lee, Jr. started the ''Greater Jacksonville Area
Community foundation
Community foundations (CFs) are instruments of civil society designed to pool donations into a coordinated investment and grant making facility dedicated primarily to the social improvement of a given place. Community foundations are a global pheno ...
'' in May 1964 as "a depository for the people of Jacksonville – both the large and small – the wealthy and the moderate, to be able to give for the betterment of their fellow man, not just today, but in a continuing way, through the principles of a foundation, for years to come", wrote McGehee.
Jacksonville Community Foundation website, About us, History McGehee was so involved with the organization that many people thought that
the Jacksonville Community Foundation was Tom McGehee's personal philanthropy, according to a consultant.
McGehee served as chairman for almost 20 years until he recruited his friend, Bob Shircliff, to become chairman and infuse new enthusiasm into the organization. Shircliff hired Andy Bell as executive director, but Shircliff and Tom McGehee supplemented Bell's salary for several years because the foundation couldn't afford what Bell was worth.
As of 2009, the Community Foundation in Jacksonville, as it is known today, is the oldest community foundation in Florida and counts more than 350 individual funds with over $125 million in assets. They have issued grants in excess of $140 million.
Grant a wish
In 1984, McGehee learned about George Lee, a 17-year-old from Jacksonville with
cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a rare genetic disorder that affects mostly the lungs, but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys, and intestine. Long-term issues include difficulty breathing and coughing up mucus as a result of frequent lung infections. O ...
. Lee's dream was to play with golfer
Fred Couples
Frederick Steven Couples (born October 3, 1959) is an American professional golfer who has competed on the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. A former World No. 1, he has won 64 professional tournaments, most notably the Masters Tournament ...
, and McGehee and his wife, Delia, arranged to fulfill George's wish. Lee died less than a year later, and was buried with the driver given to him by Couples. McGehee presented the idea of a non-profit group that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses to several local business leaders who supported the concept, and
Dreams Come True (DCT) was created.
Dreams Come True website, About At the time, McGehee owned television station channel 47, and the charity began work in an empty office there, but grew. At the time of McGehee's death, it had granted the wishes of 1,275 children. According to Suzanne Crittenden, DCT Associate Director, "His promise to every child was that 'if you have a life-threatening illness, you will have a dream come true.' He left a big void, but he's charged us with quite a mission."
Death
McGehee died in 2002 at the age of 78.
References
External links
Dreams Come True website
MAC Papers
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGehee, Tom
1924 births
2002 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
People from Jacksonville, Florida
University of Alabama alumni
Jacksonville University alumni
20th-century American philanthropists
United States Army personnel of World War II