The city of Archer will rename its community center the Roberta C. Lopez Community Center, in honor of the late former mayor, commissioner and community advocate who championed efforts to establish the center.  

A resolution for the renaming received a standing ovation during Monday’s regular City Commission meeting, where it passed unanimously.  

The only debate was whether there was enough time to let everyone who filled the commission chambers speak to the renaming and Lopez’s legacy prompting it.   

“Roberta is with us, and she is part of the healing,” said Mayor Fletcher Hope after reading the resolution. 

The 87-year-old Lopez passed away on Feb. 11, just weeks after circulating a petition aiming to preserve the Archer Community Center from being combined with City Hall.  

The effort wasn’t Lopez’s first attempt at rallying the community around the center.  

Before opening in 2011, Archer’s first Black female mayor and a 13-member committee for the project spent eight years raising more than $900,000 from grassroots donations and state-level grants to restore the abandoned 1936 Archer School gym into the community center. 

Lopez also served on numerous local and county boards, including as president of the Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Cemetery Restoration Organization (BMECRO), working to preserve the historic land. 

Following Lopez’s funeral last month at Queen of Peace Catholic Church, friends and family held her repass at the Archer Community Center.  

Although some requested the center’s name not change to represent all who worked on the project, City Manager Donald Barber said he’d received around 50 messages from across the state, including local government officials and a former Florida Chief Financial Officer, supporting the name change. He said he also consulted with Lopez’s family for input. 

“If it’s not named after her, it shouldn’t be named after anybody,” said her son, Wendell Lopez, on Monday. 

Lopez’s niece, Sharon Williams, said she remembered listening to her “Aunt Betty” talk about the challenges she faced while working to establish the center. At the time, she said there were discussions about naming it after Lopez, who didn’t want that. 

Another niece, Anita Campbell, cried with her head in her hands as she spoke from Monday’s podium about her aunt. She encouraged the commission to consider including Lopez’s full maiden name in the center’s title as the “Roberta Campbell Lopez Community Center,” to also honor her Campbell roots dating back to the 1800s in Archer.  

The commission gave Barber the green light to work with the city’s recently proposed Friends of Archer non-profit board to fundraise money for new community center signage. 

“Renaming the center in her honor would not only recognize her contributions but also serve as a lasting reminder of the value she amplified,” said resident Patricia Wiggins. “Community centers are gathering places that reflect the heart of a city. It is only fitting that such a space bears the name for someone whose work and presence have positively influenced so many lives.” 

Editor’s note: This story was underwritten by a grant from the Rural Reporting Initiative at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.