He shares his many talents by being involved actively in numerous community organizations and serves on the board of the Coral Gables Museum, Miami-Dade County Schools Athletic Advisory Board and FIU Athletic Council. In addition, Jolly is president of the Dade Schools Athletic Foundation (DSAF).
While Doug Jolly hales from Atlanta, GA, he grew up in South Florida and considers himself a native. As a youngster, Jolly attended David Fairchild Elementary, South Miami Junior High and then graduated from Coral Gables Senior High in 1969 with yet another Gables Great, Chip Withers. He furthered his education at Miami Dade Community College and graduated from Florida International University in 1978. In 1986, he earned his MBA at the University of Miami.
Jolly credits his initial involvement with volunteerism to the much beloved retired principal of Coral Gables High School, Ralph Moore, whose memory continues through a scholarship fund created on his retirement. When Moore asked Doug in 1993 to become involved with the Miami-Dade Schools Athletic Advisory Committee as a part of Doctors Hospital Sports Medicine’s support to high school athletics, Jolly said there was no way to say “no.” In fact, Jolly has served on the board of DASF, a 501(c)(3) non profit, ever since and, for the last several years, has served as its president.
Preferring to promote his non-profit work, Jolly explains that the DSAF’s mission is that of raising private sector funds to provide financial assistance to Dade County public high school athletic programs as a means of reducing high school dropouts and drug use in schools.
For the past 10 years, the organization has been hosting an annual golf tournament that several years ago connected with Eric Reid and Tony Fiorentino who are the television play-by-play broadcasters for the Miami Heat. They not only agreed to lend their names to support the tournament but later connected DASF with Ron and Lauren Book and their 501(c)(3) organization, “Lauren’s Kids.”
DSAF and Lauren’s Kids now have partnered to host the Reid and Fiorentino Call of the Game Dinner and Celebrity Golf Classic in March of 2013. The golf tournament will be played at Turnberry on Thursday, Mar. 7, while the gala will be at the Hard Rock on Saturday, Mar. 9.
While volunteer work is rewarding, Doug Jolly also enjoys being with his family, sailing, photography and even playing the guitar, something he has done since his teens. Added to those talents are his leadership skills that have made an enormous impact on organizations in which he has been involved. A humble man, Doug Jolly is one of the nicest people you will ever meet.
