John Robert Middlemas, a lifelong resident of Panama City, died on August 1, 2025. He was 89.

John Robert attended Cove Elementary, Jinks Junior High, and Bay High School, where his mother once taught and where he played on the varsity basketball team. He never lost his Tornado pride and was delighted to watch his four children and one of his granddaughters follow in his footsteps and earn their diplomas from Bay High.

After graduating from Emory University in 1957, he returned to Panama City to join his father's insurance agency, Black Insurance, which he and his brother Warren operated until its sale in 2000.

As a child, John Robert spent many of his days in and along the shoreline of his beloved St. Andrew Bay, and he once swam across the bay from the Cove to Redfish Point—an adventure that he recounted fondly and often. His early love for the bay was the foundation of a lifetime of environmental advocacy.

As a two-term member of the Florida House of Representatives, John Robert helped to enact dozens of bills establishing clean air and water regulations and earmarking money to create state parks. After leaving the Legislature, John Robert was appointed by then-Governor Reubin Askew to the Florida Pollution Control Board, the precursor to the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. He later served on the boards of the Florida chapter of the Nature Conservancy, the Florida Audubon Society, and the Apalachicola Riverkeeper. He volunteered for the St. Andrew Bay Resource Management Association, collecting monthly water samples from the bay to promote and ensure its continued health. In the mid-1990s, John Robert led the fight to prevent expansion of the Panama City Airport into the wetlands of North Bay. When the Airport Authority abandoned those plans in favor of relocating the airport, John Robert worked with fellow environmentalists, the St. Joe Company, and the Bay County Commission to establish the West Bay Sector Plan to guide future development of 70,000 acres, with more than 40,000 acres of that area set aside for preservation. Due in large part to his efforts, the shoreline of West Bay enjoys enduring protection.

An unabashed liberal, John Robert was active in Democratic Party politics throughout his life and served as informal counsel to countless elected officials.

He was a voracious reader, a lover of history, and a loyal but oft-disappointed Boston Red Sox fan.

He will be remembered for his quick wit, his integrity, his fierce adherence to his principles, and his unwavering championship of the underdog.

John Robert was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Warren, his sister Ann Middlemas Johnson, and his first love and first wife, Kendall Hood Middlemas.

He is survived by his wife Kay, who brought him joy, love, and comfort for 17 years; his children: Rob Middlemas; Mary Middlemas and her husband, Jeff Portnoy; Davis Middlemas and his wife, Meg; Kendall Middlemas Henley and her husband, Steve; and Linda Macbeth; his grandchildren: Davis and Marguerite Middlemas, Addie Henley, and Haden Macbeth; his sister-in-law, Martha Middlemas Bryant and her husband, Hallman Bryant; and niece and nephews Holly Middlemas Carter, Warren Middlemas III, and Carter Middlemas.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday,  August 7, 2025, at the Wilson Funeral Home Chapel, 214 Airport Road, Panama City, Florida 32405.  Honorary pallbearers will be Hallman Bryant, Gerry Clemons, Scott Clemons, Olivia Cooley, Sidney Daffin, Charley Gramling, Joe Harbison, William Harrison, Cliff Higby, Rayford Lloyd, Ben Redding, and Mandeville Smith, Jr.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Apalachicola Riverkeeper or to the Panama City After School Assistance Program (ASAP).

The family is grateful to the caregivers of All Ways Caring, the nurses of  VITAS Healthcare, and to John Robert's lifelong friend and longtime doctor, Sidney Daffin.