John D. Milton, Jr., a native of Jackson County, Florida, was born in 1945 in Marianna, Florida. He attended the public schools of the County where his father was the school superintendent. His immediate family of four (father, mother, sister and John) were all Valedictorians of Marianna High School – John the last to achieve the honor barely survived the familial pressure! John attended Chipola Jr. College in his hometown for one term following high school, then transferred to University of Virginia where he took his degree in Political Science.

The Vietnam War prevented John from going to law school following undergraduate studies, so he taught high school and coached basketball and baseball for two years before being drafted by the U. S. Army. John served his two years in the Army, his last in the Pentagon in the Department of International Security Affairs where former UVA professor, Warren Nutter, was then the reigning Assistant Secretary of Defense. Professor Nutter gave John the challenge of his young life in his final months of Army service as he assigned him (as the only enlisted man) to the hastily formed committee of Generals, Colonels, and Captains to read the Pentagon Papers in an effort to stop the New York Times from printing the purloined documents supplied by Daniel Ellsburg. To no avail, the Supreme Court denied the requested injunction and the Papers were published.

John next attended law school at the University of Florida where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review and academically first in his class. After law school John joined the firm of Milam, Martin & Ade in Jacksonville, Florida, where he practiced in the areas of taxation and business transactions for 25 years through various firm name changes. In 2001 John left the active practice of law to become the Chief Financial Officer of Florida Rock Industries, Inc., a New York Stock Exchange listed company, in which position he served through the Company’s sale to Vulcan Materials in November of 2007.

After a brief stint at training horses and bird dogs, John returned to the corporate world in June of 2008, as Chief Financial Officer of Patriot Transportation Holding, Inc., a NASDAQ listed company. He served in the CFO position through the spin-off of the Transportation Company in January of 2015, whereupon he continued to serve as CFO of both post-spin companies, Patriot Transportation Holding, Inc. and FRP Holdings, Inc., through September of 2017 when he turned the CFO title in Patriot Transportation Holding, Inc. over to his hand-picked successor and mentee. John still serves as CFO of FRP Holdings, Inc., a NASDAQ listed company.

John was married to Christine Rieger Milton through her death in September of 2014, and their daughter Ashley is a triple ‘Hoo having earned her Bachelors, Masters and Doctors degrees from the University. John is presently married to Vivian Milton and together they share three children, three grandchildren and too many horses and bird dogs!

John has served through the years on quite a few charitable boards, maintains his private pilot license, campaigns several bird dogs as an amateur horseback field trailer and loves to cook for outdoor gatherings of friends and family!