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Zephyrhills Icon Owen Gall Leaves Enduring Legacy

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By TOM JACKSON

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: November 15, 2008

ZEPHYRHILLS - During a rich and long life, Owen Gall was a citrus grower, industrialist, newspaperman, Army captain, community leader, raconteur, golfer, faultless gentleman and philanthropist.

Gall came to be regarded as the embodiment of what was best about Zephyrhills.

He died Friday at age 96. A cascading series of strokes that began just before Halloween finally ended his life, less than two weeks before he would have marked his 86th year in Zephyrhills.

Gall was 10 when he arrived, in the crowded back seat of his father's sedan, on Thanksgiving Day 1922 after an arduous journey from Michigan. His father, Walter Gall, gobbled up business opportunities: buying citrus groves, investing in a sand mine near Lake Wales, buying part of the Zephyrhills News and coaxing the state Legislature to plot the course of U.S. 301 - the street that would come to bear his name - through town.

Owen Gall wound up inheriting most of his father's businesses and carrying on with them until late in life.

However, his avocation, first and always, was being a Florida Gator, and he never let his friends who favored the state's other university (there were only two when he matriculated) forget it.

The University of Florida of the 1930s was an all-male enterprise. Tallahassee was home to the Florida State Teachers College, an all-female campus.

Despite the passage of 70-odd years in which, among other things, a rousing football rivalry developed, Gall's ears would prick up at the mention of FSU, and he'd draw out his needle: "That's that girls school, right?"

Not that the Tallahassee school didn't have much to recommend it. The snippet his daughter, Lisa Smith, heard him tell followed a familiar course. Every Friday, Gall and his Gainesville buddies would "race like hell" to get finished with their work so they could set out for Tallahassee and weekend dates.

"Everything was fine unless we got a flat tire," Gall would say. "Then the boys from Georgia would beat us there." Ba-da-bump-bump. Says Smith: "That's Dad for you."

Gall died at home, with Anne, his wife of 59 years, and the couple's caretaker, in a house nestled between Silveado's 17th green and 18th tee.

Despite his advanced age and slowly declining health, Gall's death surprised those who knew him.

"It's too bad, really," said Judson Baggett, 64, a career military man who regarded Gall as a rock in Zephyrhills' foundation.

Consider: As local civic organizations developed plans for a brick walk to honor veterans in Zephyr Park two years ago, the idea emerged for marking the site with a prominent American flag. Gall, a charter member of the Noon Rotary, told the group, "Find the biggest flag you can. I'll pay for it."

"He basically gave us a blank check," Baggett said.

In May 2007, the walk and 80-foot flagpole, costing about $15,000, were dedicated. Next week, an engraved stone enshrining Gall's generosity is scheduled to be set at the flagpole's foot.

Silverado owner Brantley Smith, 68, regarded Gall as his second father and an example to the generations who followed him.

"His word was his bond," Smith said. "You could take it to the bank."

Once a straight-shooting, low-handicap golfer in his own right, Gall gave it up a few years ago when his back gave out. However, he still kept an eye on the game. Last month, he phoned Smith from his porch.

"Been seeing lots of golfers," he reported encouragingly. "They're coming back."

That's pretty much how Gall saw everything: coming back, getting better - optimism all around.

"I think that's why he lived so long," his daughter said. "He always thought everything was going to work out; he never had a moment of stress. It's a good lesson: Avoid stress, live to be 96."

It doesn't hurt to leave an abundant legacy. Besides the towering flag pole, Gall is survived by his daughter and son Douglas Gall, who lives in Asheville, N.C.; two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Last year, Gall also made a $200,000 grant to the Pasco Education Foundation for University of Florida-bound Zephyrhills High seniors planning to study agriculture, journalism, education or pre-medicine.

After all, his dad gave his name to the thoroughfare that splits their adopted hometown. It's fitting the son would find a way to lend his name in perpetuity to the two places he loved most.

A memorial service is scheduled for Friday at St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church in Zephyrhills. A time for the service has not been set.

The family requests donations be sent to the Florida Sheriff's Boys Ranch or St. Elizabeth's in lieu of flowers.

Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

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