Former Jacksonville City Council member Gwendolyn Chandler has died at age 87. | Chandler family
Published on October 7, 2026 at 1:24 pm
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Former Jacksonville City Council member Gwendolyn Chandler has died at age 87, according to current council member Rahman Johnson.
Chandler was the At-Large Group 5 member from 1995 through 2003 and died Friday.
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During her time on council, Chandler chaired both the Finance and Recreation and Community Development committees. She also served on multiple City Council committees, plus the Special Committee on Cecil Field Redevelopment.
Long before her election to City Council, Johnson said, Chandler had already established herself as a formidable educator and civic leader. She was the first Black professional librarian at the Haydon Burns Main Library in 1965 and later served as the City Council’s liaison to new library development.
“There are public servants who occupy office, and there are public servants who enlarge the meaning of the office itself. Dr. Gwen Chandler belonged to the latter,” Johnson said. “She brought scholarship into government, preparation into leadership and dignity into every room she entered. Her service reminds us that representation is powerful, but representation joined with intellect, discipline and purpose can change a city.”
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Chandler was part of Leadership Jacksonville, Jacksonville Community Council Inc., the United Way Allocation Committee, the Young Black Male Study and the Jacksonville Insight Commission. She also was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sororit, Inc.
Chandler was department chair of Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Downtown campus library and a professor of educational technology. Earlier in her career, she worked with the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland.
“Before many of us ever imagined ourselves in positions of public trust, Dr. Gwen Chandler had already walked into rooms that were not always designed with women like her in mind and made excellence impossible to ignore,” Johnson said. “She was educated, prepared, elegant, formidable and deeply committed to service. She did not ask history for permission to belong in it. She earned her place in it.”
Chandler’s family will host a vigil from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at J. E. Fralin & Sons Funeral & Cremation Services, 5065 Soutel Drive. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Monday at St. Patrick Catholic Church, 601 Airport Center Drive East.
