Heidi Otway: I’m Heidi Otway, president of SalterMitchell PR and host of the Fluent in Floridian podcast. Today we are running a compilation episode based on the question that we ask every guest, “Who is a Florida leader that you admire?” First we’ll hear from Buddy Dyer, mayor of Orlando.

April Salter: Who is a Florida leader that you admire? This could be someone from any industry or field or from the past or current leader.

Buddy Dyer: I’m going to pick the one that you would probably pick April and that’s Lawton Chiles. I had the opportunity when I was in the Senate to serve six years, while he was governor and got to know him quite well. He’s the one that taught me the importance of early childhood education, which is something that I worked on both when I was in the legislature and then continued to do so since then. I loved his leadership style, his stubbornness to get things done, but also his willingness to listen to all sides of an issue, and then be able to strategize and figure a path to get something done. And that’s kind of how I view myself as giving people an opportunity to utilize their talents and not be a micromanager, but to hire the best possible people that I can and then let them do their thing.

Heidi Otway: Next is Angela Suggs, President of the Florida Sports Foundation.

Heidi Otway: Who is a Florida leader that you admire? It could be someone from Florida’s history or someone who is still active in their work.

Angela Suggs: Sure. So this will be very weird. And because I bleed orange and green, no one can take my Rattler card.

Heidi Otway: Right, right.

Angela Suggs: But probably from a historical perspective as I sit here and answer questions about being female doing things that haven’t been done before, I’d have to say Mary McLeod Bethune. And so there you are Wildcats that are listening and Rattlers that are like, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Heidi Otway: They’re groaning right now.

Angela Suggs: But I was recently in D.C. and got a chance to go to the Smithsonian African American History Museum, and there’s an entire room dedicated to Mary McLeod Bethune. Entire room. And with that, when you look at the impact that she had, she just wanted kids to know how to read. She just wanted children of color to be educated. That’s all she wanted. And just that sincerity and that drive and that work ethic that comes from that. And reading about it, learning about it, the patterning my efforts behind it. My mom who worked at FAMU but was in sports. What drives me was her ability to show me work ethic. Not just for a cheque, but for the community as well.

Heidi Otway: For a purpose.

Angela Suggs: For a purpose.

Heidi Otway: Now we have Larry Keefe, the U.S Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

April Salter: First who is a Florida leader that you admire? This could be somebody from the past or somebody who is currently active in their work.

Larry Keefe: You know not to continue to beat the Ben Hill drum over and over and over again, because you would tend to think, “Well he’s a lawyer.” He was the President of the Florida Bar. He was Counsel to Senators. He was what I would call… And in the past he might’ve been called a statesman. I guess I’ll call it a states person, because there are both men and women that have done great things. But as a leader in the State of Florida and regardless of political party or affiliation, the great leaders that you identify for being famous and they held official titles and offices, shockingly, many of them have gone to Ben Hill for guidance, advice, how to see things with the mid and long term view. And also with the ability to bring in the sense of urgency that we spoke about how to get things done in a practical way.

Larry Keefe: So, I’m heavily biased in regard to Ben Hill, but I think if you went and asked governors, senators, and other people of high station, who is a true statesman or states’ person, I think Ben Hill would show up on a lot of those. But that’s who… He is mine.

Heidi Otway: Next up is Tim Nickens, editor of editorials for the Tampa Bay Times.

April Salter: Well, Tim we always wrap up the show with four questions. And the first one is, who is a Florida leader that you admire? This could be somebody from Florida history or someone who’s still active in their work.

Tim Nickens: I admire Lawton Chiles a lot. I covered him up close when I went to the Miami Herald for a while, and covered the 1990 and 1994 campaigns. I learned a lot both from Chiles himself, a Lieutenant Governor, Buddy B K and the goals of that administration. So I just went to a… They had a 20 year sort of reunion sort of on the anniversary of his death. It was good to see a lot of those folks. And you can tell whether it’s from infant mortality, the way he negotiated that record Tobacco Industry Settlement. Those are things that still have a lasting impact 20 years later. So he ranks to the top of my list.

Heidi Otway: Our next answer comes from Alyson Sologaistoa, PR director for Universal Orlando.

Heidi Otway: And I wanted to wrap up our interview with four questions that we ask of every guest on our show. So here goes. So the first question is, who is a Florida leader that you admire most?

Alyson Sologaistoa: Yeah. I will actually tell you it’s a throwback. But Dick Pope, who was the founder and operator of Cyprus in the day. He was also known as the grandfather of public relations for us in the State of Florida.

Heidi Otway: That’s right.

Alyson Sologaistoa: He is really the person that I grew up hearing a lot about. My dad is a huge fan of his and a historian in his own right and a PR practitioner. And he really introduced who Dick Pope was to me and Cypress Gardens of course. So, watching how he was kind of an entrepreneur and tourism and travel, was very inspiring. But then also watching how he produced public relations initiatives, and what he would do to get the world to pay attention to Cypress Gardens and he really puts Cypress Gardens on the map, were things that I loved watching as I kind of progressed into my college career and then beyond that.

Heidi Otway: Now we have Scott Maxwell, columnist for the Orlando Sentinel.

Scott Maxwell: I think I might have to go with Bob Graham there, and it’s not just because it’s a cop out. I have to tell you, I struggle sometimes to find somebody who I really admire or put on a pedestal. I don’t think anybody’s perfect. In fact, if this sort of goes into another topic, but I think we are too quick to really pounce on someone for an individual flaw. I don’t think there are many people who have perfect souls in the sort of… The on social media mob acts too quickly. But for the most part, I like Bob Graham and there are those who I respect.

Scott Maxwell: You know Jeb Bush. He’s on the different side of the aisle from me. And in fact the last time I heard from him was a few months ago when I think he sent me an email. It was either a nincompoop or something like that he wrote to say. I think it was, “For a smart guy, you just wrote a really dumb column.” I think was the way it began. But I believe in his motives. I believe he’s there for the right reason, even if we have different viewpoints on some policy issues.

Heidi Otway: Next up is Matt Caldwell, a former state representative and a 2016 candidate for Florida’s Air Commissioner.

April Salter: Who is a Florida leader that you admire? This could be somebody from Florida history or someone still active in their work.

Matt Caldwell: Well this really is a huge question. As a history major, thousands of people come to mind. But keeping it focused probably in the political realm, folks like Reubin Askew, the governor in the ’70s who really tried to rise above the Partisan Fray and focus on solid policy solutions, particularly creating the Water Management Districts, a really innovative feature at the time. Or from the campaign trail Lawton Chiles having run up a 90,000 mile campaign that has a lot of shadows or echoes, I think of his campaign.

Matt Caldwell: Jeb Bush. A lot of respect for how he is as governor. He’s really able to drive the agenda and have the legislature really respond to him rather than vice versa. My last two years in the house, I was chair of government accountability, and we dealt with the question of Statuary Hall up in Washington D.C. The listeners might not remember, every state gets two statues. We as a legislature decided to remove one of those four years ago and asked the committee that we assembled to recommend some replacements and ultimately we decided on a Mary McLeod Bethune, the founder of a Bethune-Cookman College over in Daytona Beach. One of my prouder moments was shepherding that Bill through my committee, and now having the first African American woman in the entire Statuary Hall, be one of the two representatives for the State of Florida. Really, really awesome opportunity.

Heidi Otway: Our last answer comes from Jeff Klinkenberg, best-selling Florida writer.

Jeff Klinkenberg: Well I really admired and I knew her and she was very encouraging, but Marjory Stoneman Douglas. And her name was on that school where the mass murders recently took place. And a lot of people said, “Oh my God, she must be spinning in her grave.” And of course she would have hated it, but hated the murders there, but man that woman was a fighter. And I realized a lot of people didn’t know who she was. And Marjory Stoneman Douglas was born in 1890, she came to Miami in 1915. After her marriage failed, she went to work for her daddy’s newspaper, The Miami Herald. Women were supposed to write about women’s issues, you know, cooking, garden club. She objected. She wanted to write about news. She did. She wrote poetry, short stories, fiction and so forth.

Jeff Klinkenberg: In the ’40s she got a chance to write a book that’s called Everglades River of Grass, and it’s still in print. It published in 1947. And the genius of that was in Florida at that time, the everglades was regarded as a swamp. It had been regarded as a swamp for centuries. A swamp, worthless, drain it, civilize it, whatever. But she said, “No, it’s not really a swamp, it’s a river of grass. It’s 50 miles wide, it’s six inches deep.” And the connotation of river was much more pleasant than the swamp. And over the years when the everglades were in Peril… When she wrote that book, she was 65 years old. And it came out in 1947. She was 65. And so in her seventies, in her eighties, in her nineties when the everglades were imperiled, she would go to Washington, she’d go to Tallahassee. She would go anywhere where she could talk about the everglades.

Jeff Klinkenberg: And I corresponded with her starting when she was about 98 maybe. And I would send her stories that I’d written that had an everglades connection, and she would always send me back these nice notes. And in 1992 I went down to Miami and finally met her and spent a wonderful day with her. She was 102 years old and she spoke in perfect paragraphs. And it was just memorable. She actually lived six more years. Could have died in her sleep, but before she got that old, for a couple of years after I interviewed her, I would continue to send her stories. And again, she would write back with some kind of commentary. So she was really an icon and in my opinion. And someone who meant a lot to Florida and a lot to me personally.

Chris Cate: Thanks for listening to the Fluent in Floridian podcast. This show is executive produced by April Salter with additional support provided by Heidi Otway and the team at SalterMitchell PR. If you need help telling your Florida story, SalterMitchell PR has you covered by offering issues management, crisis communications, social media, advocacy and media relations assistance. You can learn more about SalterMitchell PR at saltermitchellpr.com.

Chris Cate: You can also learn more about the Fluent in Floridian podcast and listen to every episode of the show at fluentinfloridian.com or by searching for the show using your favorite podcast App. Have a great day.