Dr. Robert B. Hayling

St. Augustine, FL | 1929 - 2015

Dr. Robert B. Hayling was a native of Tallahassee, born on November 20, 1929. He earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree in 1960 from Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry and soon began his practice in St Augustine — becoming the first black dentist in Florida to be elected to the local, regional, state and national components of the American Dental Association. Dr. Hayling actively embraced the growing cause of civil rights, serving for nearly a year as the head of the St Augustine Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and as an adult advisor to the Youth Council of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Hayling’s early and steadfast leadership in the cause of civil rights in St. Augustine has been recognized in many ways, including the renaming of the street where he once lived to Dr. Robert B. Hayling Place; 2012 Recipient of the Florida A & M University Distinguished Alumni Award; Florida Memorial University’s Nathan W. Collier Meritorious Service Award recognizing his “courage, vision, fortitude, and service on behalf of mankind”; and namesake of the Dr. Robert B. Hayling Award of Valor, created by then Florida Senator Tony Hill, in Hayling’s honor.