Fall 2002

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C.B. Daniel: One of ‘area’s top 20th century leaders’

C.B. Daniel (Photo by James Leslie)

by Brian Windsor

 Like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz, C.B. Daniel, JM 1966, was in need of a new heart.

After bypass surgery at age 36 and two previous heart attacks, Daniel was experiencing heart failure.

After waiting for 465 days, Daniel received his new heart on Oct. 12, 1996. The call for surgery came as Daniel was watching a Florida football game. A young man, riding a motorcyle, had just been in a fatal accident, and his heart was going to be given to Daniel.

Daniel doesn’t remember much about his heart transplant, but it wasn’t long before he put it to the test.

In January of 1997, Daniel went to work part-time and made a trip to New Orleans to watch the Gators win their only national championship in football.

Prior to his heart transplant, Daniel and his previous heart had been through a lot during a 30-year span.

He had graduated with a degree in journalism in 1966. Then he and his wife, Carolyn, moved to Louisville, where he began a three-year stint with General Electric. After that stay he made a brief stop in Georgia before making his way home to Gainesville.

It took little time for Daniel to make his impact on the Gainesville community.

By the 1980s, he had become president of Florida National Bank. Under his guidance, the bank became the top-rated one in the FNB chain. In 1990, FNB merged with First Union, and Daniel was named city president of First Union National Bank and later became area president.

Currently he is chairman of CNB Bank’s southern division.

Daniel has been an active member in the political arena for the past 20 years and has served on many prestigious boards. However, he believes the biggest impact he’s made occurred when he served on the Florida Board of Regents and when he helped build the Girls Club of Alachua County.

The Girls Club has given girls a safe place to learn and play, Daniel said. Before that, there was no such place for girls to go.

In 1995, Daniel was appointed to the Regents, which governed the state university system.

In 2000, The Gainesville Sun named Daniel one of the area’s “Top 50 People of Distinction of the 20th Century,” and in the Spring of 2001 he was named an alumnus of distinction in the College.

Even with all of his awards and successes, Daniel manages to keep his family a priority.

Daniel and his wife have been married for 38 years and have three children—Brad, 32, and twins Britanny and Cynthia, 26.