Leadership styles vary greatly. The measure of success in the eyes of many too often allow for a humble man to remain an unsung hero. This is not native to Plant City, nor are we innocent of the charge. We all likely know someone in our lives who fits the ideal of Plant City’s Citizen of the Year who has or will be passed over. Sometimes, when in the whirlwind of getting things done and observing our town stumbling seemingly two steps forward and one slouching backward towards Gomorrah, certain people I know and appreciate thankfully just do their thing and ‘get ur dun’.
I know such a man.
Arriving in Plant City in 1995, Mr. Gil Gott served as both President of the Greater Plant City Chamber of Commerce and as Executive Director of the Plant City Economic Development Council. When I first met him, he was giving a speech to the Kiwanis Club in 1995 and wowed us with what was his passion for the beginnings of his drive to save the downtown railroad depot. Like much of downtown then, it had sat largely vacant and was suffering demolition by neglect. He eventually succeeded on that mission and the historic Union Station reopened in 1997 with many duly noted to receive credit for a job well done, except him.
After leaving the Chamber, over the next two years he coordinated the world’s largest strawberry shortcake in February 1999, wrote a huge successful grant application for the City for improvements (A/C and elevator) to the 1914 Plant City High School (likely still the record holding highest grant to that building I suspect), wrote a report for the City on bringing softball to Plant City, wrote the successful proposal to bring the Women’s Pro Softball League All-Star Game to town in July 1999 and coordinated that event. I personally witnessed and know how nearly everyone who collaborated with Mr. Gott on any of these projects enjoyed doing so, and we learned how he was always about assigning credit rather than seeking it; shouldering responsibility and dodging accolade.
When the Plant City Photo Archives was founded in 2000, neither Gil nor I had much of any idea how to do what we wanted. But by then I knew enough about my friend to get out of his way, spare him as much committee BS as I could, and turn him loose. Very few decisions of mine exceed that one in success.
Since working with the Photo Archives, while learning and leading us into doing what no one had done before, Gil also wrote the book Remembering Plant City; Tales from the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World and co-authored with Lauren Der McNair The Florida Strawberry Festival; A Brief History. He also wrote over 100 articles on local history of the greater Plant City area, and articles or columns in The Courier, Plant City Observer, FOCUS magazine, In The Field magazine and the Society of Florida Archivists’ monthly newsletter.
There are several key people who have collaborated with Mr. Gott at the Plant City Photo Archives, and they know I appreciate their hard work and dedication as well, but this time I want to shine a light on my friend Gil. Because I know he won’t.
Join us on Thursday evening September 30 from 6-8 pm at the Plant City Photo Archives when we will be holding a celebration in honor of Mr. Gott’s retirement as Executive Director there. We hope to have plenty of food and refreshments, and while this is a general “come one come all” celebration, it would be GREATLY appreciated by those planning the event if you would please email Ms. Dodie White of your plans to attend at dodiewhite@msn.com.
It would be very difficult to overstate the impact upon Plant City made so far by Mr. Gil Gott and I’m eager to see what he will do next for us all.