Amos Parker Godby was born on April 19, 1904, in Pulaski County, Kentucky. He was one of ten children. Mr. Godby played football at Mercer University. He came to Florida in 1930 and began his teaching/coaching career in Carrabelle. He later moved on to teach and coach numerous sports at Leon High School. As head football coach from 1934-1945, his teams won five championships and went undefeated in 1940.
Mr. Godby became Superintendent of Leon County Schools on January 5, 1945. Highlights of his twenty-year leadership include a $5 million bond issue; the raising of Leon County taxpayers' house assessments to appropriate more money for schools; the accreditation of all Leon County public schools; the construction of Augusta Raa and Elizabeth Cobb Junior Highs and James Rickards Jr.-Sr. High; the transition from the one-room schoolhouse into a consolidated school system with more qualified personnel. Mr. Godby always expected full value for every dollar spent.
Mr. Godby was consumed with one great concern: that the children of Florida have an opportunity to receive a decent public education. In his thirty-five years of service to the Florida educational system, he served as a teacher, coach, Chairman of Legislative committees, County Superintendent, and President and Secretary of the Florida Superintendents Association. He traveled to all parts of the state, working with school personnel and citizens in an effort to improve education. Through his efforts many new ideas and programs were developed: e.g., driver's education classes, summer school programs, the use of educational television.
In 1988, the governor of Kentucky, Wallace Wilkinson, appointed Mr. Godby a Kentucky Colonel, the highest honor awarded by the Commonwealth.
Amos P. Godby died on October 6, 1992, in Tallahassee, Florida, and was buried in Somerset, Kentucky.
He helped to bring quality and excellence to education in Florida, and we are truly proud to have our school named after such an exemplary man.
