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Publisher Behind PHCC Creation Dies

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By GEOFF FOX

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 24, 2008

DADE CITY - Ray Webb was an idea man.

Remembered by friends as gregarious and unapologetically outspoken, Webb was a former owner of the Dade City Banner newspaper and radio station WDCF. He also was instrumental in bringing Pasco-Hernando Community College to the area.

Webb died April 15 at 72. Friends said he had been struck by a boat-towing truck near his home in Brooksville.

This week, Andy "A.P." Gibbs, a Dade City resident and Tampa lawyer who knew Webb for decades, remembered his friend's sense of humor, drive to establish PHCC and penchant for challenging Dade City's power structure in the early 1970s.

"He listened to a different set of drums than anybody I've ever known," Gibbs said.

Although several people were involved in establishing PHCC's original campus near Dade City, Gibbs said Webb spearheaded the effort.

"He came up with the idea," Gibbs said. "At that time, there was an act of the Legislature that authorized 28 junior colleges, and our area didn't have one. It was the last of the 28 built. That was primarily because of the area. Nobody volunteered any land or did anything to get it started.

"Ray's idea was to find some land and see if we could raise enough money to buy it. We eventually raised $120,000 for 100 acres where the college is located today. That was a hell of a lot of money to raise in Dade City back then, but we raised it. It was basically Ray's baby."

An Iowa native, Webb moved to Dade City in the late 1960s to take over WDCF. He later was co-owner of the Dade City Banner newspaper.

As publisher of the newspaper, Webb transformed the Banner from a weekly publication to one published five days a week, said former City Commissioner Bill Dennis, who wrote for the paper.

"It was the only means of expression in Dade City at the time," he said.

Dennis also remembered Webb as a movie buff so dedicated to his hobby that he built a theater, replete with projector and screen, in his home.

"He had a good sense of humor and was very friendly and loyal to his friends," Dennis said.

Not that Webb was without enemies.

According to Gibbs, Webb rankled the city's "elitists" on several occasions. When he was publisher of the Banner, for instance, the newspaper ran several stories critical of the city's police department and police chief.
Gibbs said Webb later championed the expansion of commercial development, including a Kash n' Karry and Eckerd drugstore, along the U.S. 301 bypass, although some downtown merchants were opposed.

"Those were the first big stores to come into Dade City," Gibbs said. "The local merchants - some of the elitists, they know they are - were so infuriated that they boycotted the newspaper and wouldn't advertise because of Ray.

"But a lot of change took place in Dade City because of Ray Webb."

Webb moved to California in the early 1990s but moved back to Brooksville by the end of the decade.

His longtime friend Lill Anderson described him as a "great promoter" and "very unique." Anderson and her husband, Duane, co-owned the Banner and WDCF with Webb.

"He would speak his piece," she said. "If he said something, you could believe it. People in Dade City didn't realize what a tremendous person he was. We're really going to miss him."

On Monday, Lill Anderson sang at Webb's funeral, held at Whitfield Funeral Home in Zephyrhills. Survivors include his wife, Deborah; son, Todd; and daughter, RaeAnn "Dusty" Compton.

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

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