The Rev. Allison DeFoor, president of the North Florida Land trust, who died Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. | North Florida Land Trust
Published on October 28, 2026 at 5:12 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
The Rev. Allison DeFoor, president and CEO of the North Florida Land Trust, has died at age 72.
DeFoor died Tuesday after a brief illness. He was a longtime conservation advocate who joined the land trust in 2018 and assumed its leadership in 2023.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
City Council member Matt Carlucci remembered DeFoor as a gentle man who was “”tough as nails, full of wisdom.”
An Episcopal priest with degrees in geography, law, criminology and theology, DeFoor worked as Everglades czar under Gov. Jeb Bush, co-chaired Florida’s Water and Land Conservation Initiative, and served as sheriff of Monroe County.
At the end of a City Council meeting Tuesday, Carlucci told fellow lawmakers about DeFoor’s death, calling it a “very sad announcement.” As he made his condolences to DeFoor’s wife, former City Counci member Randy DeFoor, Carlucci called him “one of the greatest public servants” that he has known.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
“He had a great impact on our family’s life and probably thousands of lives,” Carlucci said. “I can hardly complete what I want to say except that when you hit your knees tonight, pray for Randy and her family. … He was a judge, a sheriff, a lieutenant governor — he was everything.”
Mayor Donna Deegan, in a statement Tuesday, said Jacksonville has lost “a remarkable public servant and a true son of Florida.”
“Allison DeFoor shined in roles ranging from prosecutor to priest to a leader in conservation,” Deegan wrote. “Throughout his remarkable life he was always guided by a deep love for this state and its people. I extend my deepest condolences to his wife Randy, the North Florida Land Trust, and all who loved him.”
DeFoor was born Dec 6, 1953. An Episcopal priest who served as Canon to the Ordinary to the Bishop of the Diocese of Florida, the seventh-generation Floridian was engaged in conservation for decades, according to his land trust biography.
He was a trustee of the Florida Audubon Society, the Florida Land Trust Association and 1000 Friends of Florida. In 2014, he chaired passage of Amendment 1, authorizing the largest land protection efforts in the state. But his background included criminal justice as a prosecutor, public defender, judge and sheriff of Monroe County.
A former law professor, he was the founding chair of the Project on Accountable Justice at Florida State University. He oversaw the opening of the first prison ever built on a campus while chair of Tallahassee Community College. DeFoor was elected as county judge at the age of 28, later serving as a circuit judge.
In 1990, he was Gov. Bob Martinez’s running mate. Upon moving to Jacksonville in 2015, he has served on the boards of the Florida State College Foundation, Memorial Park Foundation, Episcopal Children’s Services and Operation New Hope and as trustee of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund.
DeFoor joined the North Florida Land Trust in 2018 as a board member, became its interim president in 2022 and took on the role permanently the next day. Bill McQuilkin founded the land trust in 1999 as a nonprofit land conservation organization that has saved nearly 37,000 acres of Florida’s natural spaces.
In a statement announcing DeFoor’s death, the land trust said he devoted his life to serving others and protecting the Florida he loved.
“His work in conservation, public service, and ministry reflected his belief that we each have a responsibility to care for the places and people around us,” the statement said. “His familiar words, ‘It is now or never,’ expressed both his concern for Florida’s disappearing natural lands and his belief that, together, we could do something about it.”
In an interview with DeFoor in 2024, the land trust asked what he was most proud of since becoming president. He said he had the best team in land conservation in the No. 1 state for land conservation in the country.
“I am proud of the work that we have done and continue to do,” DeFoor said. “I love Florida to my core and want to see it stay the Florida that I know and love. I realize it is now or never. Development pressures redoubled during the COVID period, and I want to do my part to preserve all that we can.”
Memorial arrangements have not been finalized, land trust officials say.
