A 1970 St. Augustine High School graduate, Joseph L. Boles, Jr. moved to St. Augustine with his parents Joseph and Maurine Boles in 1967 from North Carolina. As a youngster Joe’s interest was in drawing and painting. He played football, baseball, hunted and fished but never once did he believe he would be anything other than become an artist. He got private drawing/painting lessons and he worked hard in high school so he could get into a good university. Joe was the senior class president, a member of the Interact Club, and was a co-editor of his senior yearbook.
After graduating high school, he went off to the University of Florida and got his Bachelor in Art degree (Advertising Design, or Commercial Art). He dabbled in some start-up businesses until one day an Alachua County Deputy Sheriff came to get his car to satisfy some old debts from Highstepper’s Teenage Disco that he started in the late 70s. So Joe thought he needed some more education in order make a better living for himself. His roommate at the time, Tracy Upchurch, was in law school, so he said “Why don’t you go to law school?”
Joe went to law school and graduated from University of Florida with a Juris Doctor degree. Joe started practicing law in 1985. For thirty plus years he has loved what he has done practicing at the Boles Law Firm in elder law, trusts and asset protection. He always believed he can practice law until he is 100 years old while on the side continue to buy the all the paints and canvases for his passion in drawing/painting.
Joe has served as mayor of the city of St. Augustine for eight years (2006-2014), and as city commissioner (2004-2006). Joe’s goal as mayor was to continue building on the reputation of the city of St. Augustine as a world-class destination and not just be a pass through on the way to Orlando by increasing the quality of the visitor experience in the nation’s oldest city.
Joe has a long-standing commitment to the St. Augustine/St. Johns County community. He has been on the Board of the St. Johns County Council on Aging (COA) as its president and chairman of that board. He also was the vice president of the St. Johns County Welfare Federation, and serves currently as vice president on the Buckingham Smith Benevolent Association Board. He was a board member of the St. Augustine High School Alumni Association, a Young Life leader/committee member for 40 plus years and past president/current board member of the Rotary Club of St. Augustine. He has previously served as president of the St. Augustine Art Association and served as secretary of the Child Cancer Fund. He was a member of the Flagler Hospital Board and the Flagler Hospital Foundation Board. He was one of the founding board members of the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum, Inc. and served as chairman of that board for two years. He was a founding board member for the First Tee of St. Johns County and a member of the American Cancer Society board for St. Johns County. He is a past president of the St. Augustine Rotary Club and previously was the chairman of the City of St. Augustine Planning and Zoning Board during the development of the city’s comprehensive land use plan.
Joe was appointed by former President Barack Obama to St. Augustine, Florida’s 450th celebration federal commission and had integral involvement in the success of the oldest city in the U.S. birthday celebration. Joe is recipient of the Order of Isabel la Catolica, presented by the King of Spain, his Majesty Felipe VI.
His hobbies are golf, fishing and painting. He is a member of the Memorial Presbyterian Church, Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine and has served as a Deacon and Trustee. He is married to Jane Reynolds Boles and they have seven children between them: Hayley, Molly, and Kirby Boles and Kara, Willie, Emily and Bridey Masson. Joe has a younger brother to Michael W Boles and sister Melissa M Boles (deceased).