John Adrian Delaney (born June 29, 1956) is an American lawyer, politician, and university and college President.

His mother, Mary Anne (Langius) was a school teacher, retiring after John and his brothers were born.

Jim and Mary Anne went to high school together, but did not start dating until sophomores at college.

At the University of Florida, he joined Delta Upsilon fraternity, graduated in 3 years and received a B.A.

They reside in Neptune Beach, a town on a barrier island off the coast of the mainland of Jacksonville.

They have four children: Bill (Katie), Adrian (Will) Milford, Meg (Drake) Skinner and Jimmy (Payton.)

Bill is a published author and co-owner of the blog, The Jaxon and of the local magazine, Edible.

During his mayoral term, Delaney was noted for launching the Better Jacksonville Plan, a massive, multi-billion dollar package of projects for municipal improvements funded by a referendum.

This paid for roads, bridges, water and sewer expansion, environmental clean up, land acquisition for parks, bike paths, neighborhood and regional libraries, and four new downtown buildings: the Baseball Grounds, a Triple A baseball facility; a new arena; new county courthouse, and new central library.

As a result, Jacksonville has the largest park system of any American city, approximately 100 square miles.

He was one of the most popular mayors in Jacksonville's history, enjoying consistently high approval ratings and running unopposed for his second election.

He worked to be bi-partisan and inclusive, leaving office with approval ratings for Republicans and Democrats, and for white and African Americans above 80%.

[3] Since 2005, six programs have been established as flagships: nursing, transportation and logistics, international business, coastal biology, nutrition and dietetics, and music.

[5] The endowment tripled during his tenure, and he roughly doubled the building space with new construction, and renovated much of the remaining.

Further, academic admission standards increased dramatically, with entering freshmen with approximately a 4.3 grade point average and a 1300 SAT score.

In October 2008, John Delaney was named interim chancellor of the State University System of Florida, remaining UNF president while doing double duty.

In October, 2021, the college asked John to remove the Interim label, and become the "permanent" president.