By Liz Best

HIGHLAND BEACH — Ferdinand “Ferd” Maggiore, known and loved among family and friends for an engaging sense of humor, his masterful storytelling and a love of all things Italian, died Feb. 4 in Delray Beach after suffering a stroke. He was 84.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Maggiore married Emeline Benassi and lived for many years in Millington, N.J., where he established a construction-consulting firm. He moved to Highland Beach in 1994 following his wife’ s death. He and his wife, Lucia, married in 1996. 

Mr. Maggiore was active in the National Italian American Foundation, Il Circolo, the Italian Cultural Club of Palm Beach and St. Lucie Counties and was a member of St. Lucy’s Catholic Church. In addition to having a passion for his Italian heritage, Mr. Maggiore also loved the opera and classical music and was well-known for telling amusing anecdotes.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Maggiore is survived by a son and daughter-in-law, Anthony and Lisa Maggiore of Norwalk, Conn.; daughters, Mary Ann Maggiore of Fairfax, Calif., Elizabeth Maggiore of Mine Hill, N.J.; and daughters and sons-in-law, Catherine and Michael Walsh of Dunellen, N.J. and Chris and Andy Cocozzella of Darnestown, Md.; 13 grandchildren; and two sisters. 

A funeral mass was held Feb. 12. at St. Lucy’s Catholic Church in Highland Beach. Donations in Mr. Maggiore’s memory may be made to Il Circolo Scholarship Fund, PO Box 2166, Palm Beach, FL 33480.

                                                                   Plans call for Gumbo Limbo Nature Center
                                                          to build new sea turtle tanks and roofs to cover them. 
                                                                       Rendering courtesy Gumbo Limbo

By Steve Plunkett

The outdoor seawater tanks that hold endangered sea turtles, sharks and spiny lobsters at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center could be demolished as soon as June to make way for a $1.9 million upgrade.

The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District approved spending the money in late February, setting the stage for Boca Raton to approve the project this month. 

“After about 25 years along that ocean, that salt air is going to deteriorate most everything,’’ Gordon Gilbert, the center’s now-retired school program manager, told district commissioners before their vote.

Gilbert recalled a recent trip there with visitors from England. “They just could not get over Gumbo Limbo,” he said. “It is truly the showplace of this town.”

Replacement tanks have been talked about for years. District commissioners first committed $1 million for them in 2007, Executive Director Robert Langford said, an amount that was carried over in subsequent budgets while the plan crystallized.

The city requested bids with four options, covering two new tanks, four tanks, four tanks with a roof over two of them and four tanks with a roof over all four. Langford recommended that commissioners allocate an additional $940,000 so the full roofs can be added to the project.

Up to now, canopies to protect the marine exhibits and visitors from the sun have shaded the viewing tanks.

The deeper pair of tanks will also have stairs to a second-level viewing area, providing an “expanded experience’’ to visitors, Langford said. 

The construction timetable calls for the project to begin in June and be completed by March 2012, said Buddy Parks, the city’s deputy recreation services director. Although the old tanks will be demolished, the staff at the nature center is working on having other public exhibits during construction. Programs will continue except for those directly associated with the tanks, Parks said.

The Friends of Gumbo Limbo plans to raise at least $250,000 to stock the tanks and create interpretive exhibits, said Mike Zewe, the nonprofit group’s development director.

Approval of the tank project comes as nesting season begins for sea turtles along Palm Beach County shores. Signs along State Road A1A remind residents and businesses on the beach to shield or dim their lights from March 1 to Oct. 31 so mother turtles and hatchlings aren’t distracted
or disoriented. 

By Steve Plunkett

Nestled among Highland Beach Town Manager Dale Sugerman’s e-mail last July was a message he wasn’t supposed to see: a collection of jokes Town Clerk Beverly Brown forwarded to him by mistake via the town’s official e-mail.

Sugerman investigated and found more jokes, some “sexually-oriented or defamatory,’’ that Brown had forwarded during work hours, including one alluding to President Obama and using the N-word. He decided a one-month suspension without pay was appropriate for the town’s second in command.

But before he could suspend her, Sugerman himself was suspended—though with pay—amid strong indications the Town Commission will not renew his contract in June.

‘’Where are you coming from?’’ Commissioner John Sorrelli demanded during the commission’s initial inquiry. ‘’I am so upset, I am ready to blow my cork here.’’

The commission’s Jan. 4 meeting began with an appeal from former Mayor Arlin Voress to intervene on Brown’s behalf. Sugerman said it was inappropriate to discuss the case in public while Brown still could appeal. Commissioners were divided on talking about it, and Mayor Jim Newill cast the deciding vote (to discuss).

Brown has breast cancer, and Newill’s wife has been going with her to doctor appointments and treatments, he said.

“The doctors have been very, very specific, which I passed on to the town manager several times, that she is not to be put under any kind of stress, because stress can really ruin the treatment,’’ Newill said.

Newill said he opposed firing the town manager without cause but asked if any commissioner would make a motion to direct Sugerman to rescind the suspension. That way, he said, if Sugerman refused, he would be guilty of insubordination.

“Just because you don’t agree with what the person is saying, you don’t think that he’s necessarily  doing what you would like them to do, that doesn’t to me constitute cause. I think something like this constitutes cause,’’ Newill said.

In a memo Sugerman gave Brown on Jan. 3, he outlined what he said was cause to suspend her: five e-mails containing “derogatory, racist, lewd and lascivious’’ jokes sent from April 20 to July 15 on Highland Beach’s computer system during working hours. He noted she had signed the town’s Information Technology Policy, which prohibits sending or receiving “obscene, sexually-oriented or defamatory’’ materials.

At a Dec. 20 hearing, Brown’s lawyer said the e-mail sent to Sugerman “was obviously done in error,’’ he wrote. Brown’s lawyer said a verbal or written warning was in order, he added.

‘‘What is most disappointing in all of this is that you absolutely should have known better,’’ Sugerman wrote.

There were other e-mails, but Sugerman did not want to pile them onto his complaint, he said. Town Attorney Tom Sliney told him the police chief of Wilton Manors in Broward County had received a 30-day suspension without pay for sending derogatory and racist e-mails during work hours from his city computer, he wrote. That chief ultimately resigned rather than be fired.

He said Brown’s actions were serious enough to warrant termination but because she had health problems he had decided on the unpaid suspension. He arranged for Brown to take college classes at town expense on sexual harassment, cultural sensitivity and computer etiquette.

The e-mails Sugerman cited as evidence include one forwarded to Brown by Fran Garfunkel, who Brown said is the town attorney’s paralegal. “Now I know why I like our neighbors to the North,’’ it begins. ‘’Nothing they do is politically correct.’’

Another e-mail, about a “Texas girl’’ who shoots a Mexican and an Arab at a bar because her state has “so many illegal aliens,’’ was sent to Brown by Mary Haynes, city clerk of Peoria, Ill.  Brown and Haynes won Quill awards from the International Institute of Municipal Clerks, which certified them both as Master Clerks.

IIMC members sign a Code of Ethics promising that “the affairs of my office shall be above reproach’’ and “to so conduct my public and private life as to be an example to my fellow citizens.’’ 

“I don’t think this is the norm for these two ladies, I really don’t,’’ said Chris Shalby, executive director of the organization, adding he has known Brown and Haynes a long time. “It’s unfortunate.’’

This is not the first time Brown has hired an employment attorney. She sued Redington Beach in 2006 challenging that town’s extension of her six-month probationary status, the St. Petersburg Times reported. She was placed on paid leave, returned to work but resigned two months later, the Times said.

Before that she was town clerk in nearby Seminole for three years and in Shelton, Conn., for 30 years. Highland Beach hired her in 2007.

 Brown has appealed the proposed suspension. The town must select an impartial hearing officer to review her case.

At the commission’s Feb. 1 meeting Vice Mayor Miriam Zwick said she had felt pressured to order Sugerman to rescind Brown’s suspension.

“This vote unfortunately allowed certain individuals to rush to judgment and use it as a wedge to unseat the manager, who had chosen to remain with his original proposal as being the correct, democratic process,’’ she said.

Commissioners voted 3-2 with Zwick and Commissioner John Pagliaro dissenting, to put Sugerman on paid suspension for five months. They also agreed to hold a special meeting to interview candidates for interim town manager. 

Sugerman’s contract ends in June. He became town manager in 2005.

By Steve Plunkett

A 20-year-old man crossing A1A at the Highland Beach Club crosswalk was struck by a car on New Year’s Eve and hospitalized.

Casuarina snowbird Alan Zuniss, 71, told the Florida Highway Patrol his sandal got caught on the car’s brake pedal and he couldn’t stop in time.

The FHP report said Zuniss was headed south in his 2004 Saab convertible and Tyler Wilson, age not given, Jess Itzikowitz and Drake Laurie, both 20, were crossing the highway from the west to the east at 5:50 p.m. The three said northbound cars had stopped for them and no southbound vehicles were approaching. 

Wilson had made it to the northbound lane, Itzikowitz was more than halfway across the southbound lane and Laurie was in the middle of the southbound lane.  The left front of the Saab collided with Laurie, propelling him onto the hood, his head striking the windshield. He was carried about 50 feet.

Saab’s left front tire collided with Itzikowitz’s left calf, and Itzikowitz fell forward onto his knees. Zuniss stopped his car about 153 feet south of the point of impact, the report said.

Zuniss was cited for failing to yield right-of-way to a pedestrian in a crosswalk and operating a motor vehicle with an expired June 2008 tag.

  The accident and one without severe injuries just south of the Boca Highlands crosswalk in Boca Raton prompted a spirited discussion on whether residents are cautious around crosswalks.

“I hope our residents are setting the example,’’ Police Chief Craig Hartmann said.

“My past experience: They’re not,’’ Commissioner John Sorrelli said. “They’re the ones who are crossing when they’re not supposed to be crossing. They don’t even press the button anymore. And then they blame somebody when somebody hits them. 

“The other day when these two kids were hit, New Year’s Eve, that was terrible. [It was a] Highland Beach resident,’’ Sorrelli said.

By Steve Plunkett

For land that’s lain idle more than 17 years, Ocean Strand swirled into 2011 with a flurry of activity. 

• Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District Commissioner Dirk Smith met with the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations to invite ideas on what kind of park Ocean Strand should be. 

• Keep Your Boca Beaches Public submitted 1,522 signatures demanding that  “development for private uses (including members-only beach clubs) … be prohibited’’ at Ocean Strand and other public land on the barrier island. The grass-roots group paid $152.20 to have the signatures verified.

• The Beach and Park District short-listed six firms to draw up plans for the parcel.

• Boca Raton’s city attorney declared the grass-roots petition unconstitutional and told the city clerk not to process the signatures.

• The Boca Raton City Council ordered its city manager to begin changing Ocean Strand’s land-use designation from residential to recreational, rather than wait for the Beach and Park District to request it. That process will take six to eight months.

• The Beach and Park District heard presentations from the short-listed firms, then chose Curtis + Rogers Design Studio Inc., the company that developed the master plan for Sugar Sand Park.

“When we look at Ocean Strand park, we have a very strong indication that it likely will be a passive park,’’ landscape architect Aida Curtis of Curtis + Rogers told district commissioners.

Her company said Ocean Strand naturally divides into three zones — the oceanfront, a central meadow and the Intracoastal — and that each area could support different uses. A beach club, a spa or space for yoga could go on the beach portion; lawn games, a garden center or outdoor concerts on the meadow; and rowing, sailing or a bicycle club on the Intracoastal, she said.

Curtis said her firm would schedule both large forums and meetings with smaller groups to gauge different interests. A complicated Miami Beach park required 180 meetings, she said.

Comment cards are passed out to balance whatever is said by more vocal members of the community, Curtis added.

“It’s a matter of getting everyone heard, understood, and then bringing back the groups together,’’ she said.

If the ideas presented at the homeowner federation are a guide, building consensus may take time.

“I want it to be available for everyone to go there, so we’re going to need parking spaces for people to get to the beach,’’ one man said, adding boat docks, picnic tables and a restaurant to his list. ‘’I would hate to see this $30 million piece of property turn into a place for the residents of Boca Towers to walk the dog.’’

Items on other wish lists included a kayaking concession, disabled-friendly amenities, a covered area for weddings, a walking path, a fishing area for children, a tot playground, wind-surfing, a boat launch, a maritime hammock, camping facilities for Boy Scouts and “green’’ restrooms.

“It’s time for people to come and see what the beach looks like,’’ another man said. “It is in perfect, pristine condition. And I think one of the options that should be considered is doing nothing at all.’’

Smith said anyone with ideas can e-mail him at dsmith@mybocaparks.org

At the Beach and Park District’s first meeting in January, Ocean Strand neighbors repeated their request that commissioners ask Boca Raton to change the parcel’s zoning before developing a master plan, prompting an angry response from Commissioner Dennis Frisch.

“What it says is that you all don’t trust us. We’ve done nothing but tell you that we’re going to put a park on that. And over and over you’ve come in and asked us to do something that we’ve told you, we’re not going to change the process,’’ said Frisch, who later was selected chairman of the district.

“We’ve never done anything to earn your mistrust. Trust us to do the right thing. It’s what we were elected for,’’ Frisch continued.

“It’s not that we don’t trust you,’’ Boca Towers resident Sharon Picker said. “I think we’re just scared that the powers that be — they’re pretty mighty powers, they’re politically powerful and financially powerful — might swoop down while you’re doing your planning and take the land, and lease it out from under you.’’

Commissioners assured Picker that could not happen.

The following night Boca Raton City Council member Anthony Majhess also reached the limits of his patience and moved to begin rezoning procedures.

“It’s been very frustrating for me as an elected official to watch the ball be kicked back and forth across the line,’’ he said. “We’ve all agreed it’s going to be a park. I think anybody who would even think to do anything otherwise — some of the conspiracy theories that are out there of what might happen — I think even if somebody had that as an intent, they’ve been pretty well painted into a political corner.’’

His proposal passed 5-0.

The Beach and Park District bought the Ocean Strand property in 1994 for $11.9 million but hasn’t made it a park yet. In late 2009, Penn-Florida Companies proposed a private cabana club there to complement a luxury hotel in Via Mizner, a $1 billion redevelopment project planned for downtown Boca Raton. Neighbors were surprised to discover the city’s comprehensive plan labels the parcel residential instead of recreational. 

The Boca Raton Resort & Club as it stand today.
The original Cloister built by Addison Mizner is at right.

Photo courtesy of the Boca Raton Resort & Club

Five things you maybe didn't know about Addison Mizner | Resort timeline

Photos

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

This year, the Boca Raton Resort & Club turns 85 years old. Looking back, the important role the hotel has played in the community is clear. It’s safe to say that if the iconic hotel never existed, Boca Raton would be a very different place from today.

“This landmark is part of our past and present,” says Susan Gillis, curator for the Boca Raton Historical Society. “The hotel is still a very important part of Boca Raton.”

In fact, people in Boca think of it as “their” hotel, Gillis says. And until World War II, the hotel and agriculture were the mainstays of the area’s economy. 

Natalie Warren, a BRHS docent who gives tours of the historic hotel, knows how important the property is to the community. She virtually grew up there. 

Her mother was a real estate agent with offices just off what was the hotel’s original lobby. 

Warren spent afternoons sitting on Addison Mizner’s grand staircase reading books. 

As a young woman, she held jobs at the resort, including working at the lobby chocolate shop and the hotel flower shop as well as waitressing at the golf course restaurant.

“I loved coming here. It was like being part of history,” she says. 

Over the years, the hotel and its owners have done a lot to foster the community. Today, the city is home to about 85,000 residents. But in 1903, it was a farming village with about 18 residents.

The Dream City

Here’s an account of those times from an early settler Harley Gates, who built a house in Boca Raton in 1914:  

“Farming was the principal means of making a living during my early years at Boca Raton. Most of the farms were small and usually from five to 20 acres. The main crops grown were green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant and peppers.”

Even in 1923, if you arrived on the Miami-bound train, you might think you were in the middle of nowhere, according to papers in the archives of the BRHS.

And that’s what Addison Miznerconfronted when he was commissioned by the Town Council to plan a world-class resort community on the banks of Lake Boca Raton.

In 1925, he acquired three-quarters of a mile of beachfront property and set about building what he claimed would be “The Dream City of the Western World” offering a mixture of “snob appeal and greed appeal.”

By January 1926, nearly 3,500 men were working in Boca Raton to build Mizner’s dream. The payroll was in excess of $1 million a month. And that year, his Cloister Inn opened its doors. That building still forms the eastern wing of the Boca Raton Resort & Club.

“It must have been amazing to see this beautiful, swanky place grow from the ground up. In those days, there was hardly anything here so it must have seemed very impressive,” Gillis says. 

From boom to bust

Mizner’s plans for the young community ended when the land boom went bust in 1926. But Mizner still accomplished much by opening his original 100-room hotel.

That was the beginning of today’s resort, which has grown and changed over the years.

“Each of its owners has repurposed the hotel for their times,” Gillis says.

In the 1920s when it was built, the inn was where people stayed while they looked to buy a piece of Boca Raton. 

Clarence Geist, a Philadelphia utilities magnate, bought the property in 1927 and turned it into an exclusive club. “His impact on the community either directly or indirectly was of paramount importance,” Gillis says.

During his tenure, he added 400 rooms to the club. He also gave land for a train station that could handle his private rail car, and he created a waterworks that served the city until 1956. Boca Raton had the finest water plant in the state, Gillis says.  

He also helped the town weather the Great Depression. “Everyone, black and white, had at least a part-time job at the hotel,” Gillis says.

Foxholes
on the golf course?

In 1942, during World War II, the hotel was taken over by the Army Air Corps until the Boca Raton Army Airfield could be built where FAU now stands. Here they established the only wartime radar training school.

“During that time, there wasn’t enough water pressure at the hotel so things got kind of yucky with all those men quartered here,” Gillis says. There were even rumors they built foxholes on the golf course.

But the hotel survived and, in 1944, it was bought by J. Myer Schine, who owned a number of hotels across the country. He not only painted the hotel a dusty shade of pink, but also, in 1945, opened the club as a year-round resort and welcomed the public. 

This was a boon to the town that now had employment opportunities for more than just three months a year. 

It also meant the hotel could become more involved with the community. Here’s an account written by his wife Hildegarde:

“Before we bought the hotel it was a private club. As we moved in, the townspeople came to us saying the hotel was the only major industry in Boca, and many townspeople worked there. But no Boca Raton-ites had ever set foot in the front door. I thought that was awful because there were many lovely people here. So I gave a party and invited everyone in town.”

A community
with history

Arthur Vining Davis took over the resort in 1956. He created Arvida, an acronym for his name, and it was a “big force” in Boca Raton until the 1990s. In addition to the hotel, his developments included five high-rise condos and the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club.

He put his mark on Boca Raton by “creating modern gated communities from farmland,” Gillis says. That’s the Boca Raton we know today. 

Docent Warren has memories of that time. Her mother sold real estate for Arvida, and she would go along when her mother showed prospects properties. “I remember her telling them, ‘When you buy here, you don’t just buy a house, you buy into a community with a history,’ ” Warren says. 

Davis put his mark on the hotel by adding a 27-story tower of rooms and the Great Hall that contained meeting space.

That meant this vacation hotel could tap into the convention business. “That was Mr. Davis’ real gift to Boca Raton,” Gillis says. 

Another famous owner was H. Wayne Huizenga, who took over the property in 1997 and saw the opening of the Mizner Center, a large convention facility, in 1998. 

Currently, the resort is owned by an affiliate of The Blackstone Group, a private investment banking firm. 

It includes the original Cloister, the Yacht Club, the Tower, Boca Beach Club, the Bungalows, the Boca Country Club, conference facilities, two 18-hole championship golf courses, 30 tennis courts, Spa Palazzo, a golf clubhouse, seven pools, a 32-slip marina and a half-mile of private beach.

“Eighty five years after its illustrious opening, the Boca Raton Resort & Club maintains its legacy of style and elegance,” says Stephen Ast, president of the Boca Raton Resort & Club.  “And, as one of the largest employers in Palm Beach County, the resort is committed … to the community, providing services, partnership and support.”    

Courtesy of the Boca Raton Historical Society

Anniversary Events

Boca Raton Resort & Club Tour: The Boca Raton Historical Society offers walking tours of the Boca Raton Resort & Club on the first and third Tuesdays of each month through May. The tours run 2 to 3:30 p.m. Cost: $15 plus $10 hotel valet fee. Reservations required (561) 395-6766, Ext. 100. 

Boca Raton Resort & Club Package: Feb. 11 through 13, the resort will offer a package that includes a second night for $85 in the historic Cloister building. For information, call (888) 543-1277. The hotel is at 501 E. Camino Real, Boca Raton.

Mizner Industries: The exhibition at the BRHS in Town Hall, 71 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. It includes products made by Mizner Industries and items from Addison Mizner’s Palm Beach apartment. 

Boca Raton Army Airfield: “Secrets Revealed” is a lecture by Sally Ling, author of a history of the Army Air Corps radar-training base during World War II and the long-term impact it had on Boca Raton. From 2 to 3:45 p.m. March 9, The event costs $25 and is sponsored by FAU’s Lifelong Learning Society. Freiberg Auditorium, FAU Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton. Information: 297-3171 or 297-3185 or  www.fau.edu/lls and link to “LLS Boca Raton Home.” 

— Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

Jack Fox has piloted his own planes,
including this Beechcraft Baron, for
more than 50 years. He keeps this plane
at Boca Raton Airport. Photos by Tim Stepien  

How do you know Jack Fox?

Coastal residents may know him as president of the Beach Condominium Association of Boca Raton/Highland Beach.

But for some people, he is an angel. 

Fox, whose résumé includes piloting a Beechcraft Baron twin-engine plane, flies people who cannot afford air fare to treatment centers around the state. 

“Angel Flights has a mission that no one should be denied medical treatment because they do not have the money to get there,” said Fox, who pilots Angel Flights from Boca Raton and from his second home, in Virginia Beach. “We donate the time, the aircraft and the fuel.”

Fox, who has flown small aircraft for 51 years, moved to Boca Raton with his wife, Beverly, about 23 years ago. 

The Foxes have been married 55 years and have three children and five grandchildren. They have a townhouse at Boca Raton’s Yacht & Racquet Club, where Beverly Fox raises orchids and Jack Fox navigates the local waterways in their 50-foot motor yacht, the Sea Fox.

“We live in a unique place,” he says. “It’s different from most condos. We call it a residential resort community.” Fox says the Yacht & Racquet Club “has a very, very active social program” and is a place with an island feel.

Educated to be an industrial engineer, Fox went on to own a major commercial bakery — his wife ran the bakery’s outlet store — then branched out into other businesses. 

“The greatness of this country is small entrepreneurs,” Fox says. “It’s the greatest country on Earth for opportunities.”

And with the Beach Condominium Association, he sees an opportunity to make a difference. Fox says he has been involved with the association about six or seven years now. The group, which originally was composed of 10 or 15 condos a quarter-century ago, now represents 63 developments, most of them along A1A. They meet the third Thursday of each month. A different condo hosts each month.

“It’s an exchange of ideas,” he says of the meetings. “Our overriding concern is managing condos — policies on pets and the disciplinary procedures the associations have.”

Top among Fox’s concerns is the unfettered growth of sea grapes along A1A, which blocks views of the beach. 

“They’ve been unkempt and overgrown for years,” he says. “Here we have one of the most beautiful cities in southeast Florida with one of the ugliest beaches in southeast Florida.”

Advocates for sea turtles say the trees prevent lights from condos from distracting turtle hatchlings. But Fox says he would like to see the city replant the beaches in an environmentally sensitive way.

“Look at Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. They have clear beaches,” he says.

Another of Fox’s passions: The Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education at Florida Atlantic University. 

“The program explores how groups can prejudice,” Fox says. “They teach the teachers how to teach the subject at school. And that’s a very important thing to do throughout the school system.”

—  Scott Simmons

Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? 

A. I was born and raised in Baltimore. Went to college at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, where I earned a degree in industrial engineering.

Q. What are some highlights of your professional life beyond the Beach Condominium Association of Boca Raton/Highland Beach? 

A. I worked for a big company till I was 41 and thought the great opportunities in this country were in small business.

I was in baby foods manufacturing. Then I gave this guy a bunch of IOUs, bought a bakery and moved to Emporia, Va. By age 51, I had built the business to 400 employees at three plants.

I sold out and became an investor, and was involved in automobile auctions. 

Q. How did you choose to make your home in Boca Raton?

A. Two reasons. First, my mother and father moved to Palmaire, near Pompano Beach. And Boca had one of the most progressive governments. It’s a beautiful city, except for the sea grapes, and the water is among the best in the state. Boca also has a fabulous recreation system.

Q. What is your favorite part about living in Boca Raton?

A. The fundamental geography. We’re 40 minutes from great culture — museums, symphonies, fine restaurants.

Q. What are some of your interests beyond the association?  

A. I’ve been a pilot for 51 years, and keep a plane at Boca Raton airport. I have a hangar there. It’s extremely well managed. 

I fly out here and in Virginia Beach, and donate the time, aircraft and fuel … I have flown cancer patients. The only requirement is that they can’t afford to or physically can’t go on a commercial flight. That’s a rewarding group.

I’m a member of the Boca Raton Pilots Association. We go on fly-outs — we recently flew up to lunch in Stuart.

I also am commodore of the condo yacht club, and have a 50-foot motor yacht, the Sea Fox. We go on trips. We go to the New River Jazz Brunch, along the New River in Fort Lauderdale.

Q. What book are you reading now? 

A. I read nonfiction. The last book I read was the history of Boca Raton Airfield. Early work on radar was done right here in Boca Raton. The Berlin Airlift was dependent on work done in Boca Raton.

Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?  

A. I like jazz and classical music. Saw the Dave Koz holiday show. We go to the Broward Center for classical and for international symphony orchestras. I’m an Entourage member of the Broward Center.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions? 

A. The definition of luck: “When preparation meets opportunity.”

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?

A. My dad, who passed away about 10 years ago. He was a very patriotic man with a love of country. During World War II, he was an air raid warden in Baltimore.

Q. Who or what makes you laugh?

A. My grandchildren. 

In 1967, Arvida tears down part of the original
Cloister to build the tower. It is the tallest structure
between Tallahassee and Miami at the time.

Photo courtesy of the Boca Raton Resort & Club

1925:  Palm Beach architect Addison Mizner arrives in Boca Raton.  He and his Development Corp. hope to build Mediterranean-style structures for commercial and residential use on a 1,600-acre tract of land. Their plans include a never-built Ritz-Carlton on the beach.

1926: In a hurry to bring customers for his development to Boca Raton, Mizner opens a smaller hotel, the Cloister Inn. It’s under Ritz-Carlton management on the shore of Lake Boca Raton.  The opening sparks a promotional buildup that ultimately changes Boca Raton from a sleepy village into a resort community.

The inn has Spanish-Mediterranean, Moorish and Gothic influences. It is characterized by hidden gardens, barrel-tile roofs, archways, ornate columns, finials, intricate mosaics, fountains and beamed ceilings of ornate pecky cypress. The per room building cost was $10,000. 

1927: The land boom ends in Florida leaving Mizner’s Development Corp. in financial difficulty. Philadelphia utilities magnate Clarence Geist buys the Cloister Inn for $71,000, assuming $7 million of the Mizner Development Corp.’s debt.

1928-1930: Geist enlarges the Cloister Inn and creates the private Boca Raton Club, a golf club.  He builds the Cabana Club, south of the inlet, offering 200 private beach cabanas, informal dining rooms and card lounges. Famed architects Schultze & Weaver, who also designed the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables and The Breakers in Palm Beach, were the architects for the project that opened in January1930.

1942: The U.S. enters WWII. Boca Raton’s airport and coastal locale make it ideal for an Army airbase. The U.S. government acquires 5,860 acres from more than 100 property owners to construct it.  

Meanwhile, the Army takes over the Boca Raton Club for offices, classrooms and officers’ barracks while it builds the air station, the country’s only radar training school.   

1944: J. Myer Schine buys the Boca Raton Club and the Spanish River Land Co. from Geist’s estate. The hotel costs $3 million.

1945: The property reopens as the Boca Raton Hotel & Club. 

About 1950: The hotel is painted pink for the first time. In Mizner’s time, the club appears to have been white and cream-colored.  It apparently was Schine’s wife, Hildegarde, who liked the deep dusty rose color. The current color is much pinker than the 1950s color. 

1956: Arthur Vining Davis, founder of the Aluminum Co. of America, purchases the Boca Raton Hotel & Club. He creates Arvida Development Corp., an acronym of his name.

1967: Arvida tears down the southeastern wing of the original Cloister Inn to build the 27-floor tower that holds 257 rooms and a restaurant on top. When built, it is the tallest structure between Tallahassee and Miami.

1968: Arvida opens the Great Hall, a convention center, which incorporates the structure of the Schultze  & Weaver-designed outdoor swimming pool with its four corner towers. 

1980: The Boca Beach Club on the beach replaces the old Cabana Club, which is demolished. The new club costs $20 million and features a half-mile of private beach, two swimming pools, 214 rooms (including eight suites) and two restaurants.

1983: The Boca Raton Hotel & Club is sold to Boca Raton Hotel and Club Limited Partnership with VMS Realty Corp., a Chicago-based real estate developer, installed as the general partner for the limited partnership. 

1986: The property becomes known as the Boca Raton Resort & Club, and acquires the Boca Country Club about seven miles away. 

1991: The Boca Raton Resort & Club undergoes an $11 million renovation.

1993: The Boca Raton Management Co. replaces VMS Realty Corp. as general partner for the Boca Raton Resort & Club Limited Partnership. In October, BRMC successfully completes the refinancing of $150 million of indebtedness.

1996: The Boca Raton Resort & Club completes a $165 million recapitalization. The resort renovates guest rooms and suites in the Cloister and Tower. Construction begins on the Mizner Center, a $40 million meeting and catering facility.

1997: The Boca Raton Resort & Club is purchased by H. Wayne Huizenga and Florida Panthers Holdings, Inc. (now Boca Resorts Inc., or BRI) for $325 million. The Resort & Club completes a $6.5 million redesign of the resort golf course done by Gene Bates. The $10 million tennis and fitness center opens.

1998: The Boca Raton Resort & Club opens the Mizner Center, a meeting and conference facility designed to resemble the original Mizner design. 

2001: The Boca Raton Resort & Club celebrates its 75th anniversary and unveils Spa Palazzo, modeled on the Alhambra Palace, a two-story golf clubhouse and the Grand Piazza, including the Tuscan restaurant Lucca (run by Drew Nieporent of New York’s Nobu and Tribecca Grill), Bar Luna, the renovated Malone’s Magic Bar and more. 

2004: An affiliate of the Blackstone Group, a private investment banking firm, purchases BRI in December for $1.25 billion. 

2005: The name of BRI is changed to LXR Luxury Resorts.

2005-2006: Refurbishment of the resort begins, including renovation of the main lobby, redesign of guest rooms and the addition of the Old Homestead Steak House (well known to New Yorkers). The new décor includes a light beige and white ceiling in the lobby, slate and stone floors and white leather furniture. 

2007-2008: The opening of Cielo Restaurant at the top of the Tower, the debut of the Palm Court, the addition of Morimoto’s Sushi Bar by chef Masaharu Morimoto of Iron Chef fame, Serendipity Restaurant and the redesign of the Family Room.

2009: The 212-room Boca Beach Club reopens following a $120 million renovation that coincides with the completion of a total of more than $220 million in renovations at the Resort & Club.

2011: The Boca Raton Resort & Club celebrates its 85th anniversary.

Sources: the Boca Raton Resort & Club website; The Boca Raton Resort & Club — Mizner’s Inn, (The History Press, 2008) by Donald Curl; Boca Raton Historical Society curator Susan Gillis; BRHS docent Natalie Warren. 

— Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley  

Addison Mizner

Courtesy Boca Raton Historical Society

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

Five things you might not know about Addison Mizner:

1. The Boca connection: Although Mizner is virtually synonymous with Boca Raton, he spent no more than a year in the city and never really lived here. But his small inn — the Cloister Inn, on Lake Boca Raton — and his dreams for turning the area’s farmland into a destination resort city have forever linked him to the area. 

2. That Mizner Style: Mizner was known for his Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean Revival styles. He came to appreciate Spanish Colonial architecture while living in Central America. His father, an attorney and politician, campaigned for Benjamin Harrison during his run for the presidency in 1888. After winning, Harrison appointed Mizner’s father as minister to Central America. That’s when Addison was exposed to the style of architecture that would dominate his professional life.  

3. A man’s castle: Mizner planned to build himself a home on a man-made island in Lake Boca Raton. His plans included a master bedroom in a tower with a projecting balcony bathroom. The main floor included a great hall, a 36-by-52-foot drawing room and a dining room with a kitchen and butler’s pantry. The lower level had a “boat grotto” for a 45-foot yacht, a wine cellar and servants’ rooms. An elevator connected the floors and a drawbridge helped secure the home.  The house was slated to cost $1 million but was never built. 

4.  Mosquito madness: Mizner’s grand plan for Boca Raton was undone by heat, humidity and mosquitoes. Over the summer of 1925, many people from the North came to Florida for vacation. Already real estate salesmen and construction workers were occupying precious rooms. The invading tourists found few restaurants open in the off-season, markets with little that was fresh. Milk and, of course, ice were at a premium. That, along with the climate and summer mosquito invasion, caused tourists returning home to bad-mouth Florida. These factors all contributed to an uncertain real estate climate and the end of the land boom.  

5. Think pink: Although we think pink when we think of Mizner, it wasn’t part of his color palette. In fact, the Cloister Inn was beige until its third owner, the Schines, painted it pink after they took over in 1944.  Ú

Source: Boca Raton Historical Society and The Boca Raton Resort & Club, by Donald Curl and the BRHS.

 By Mary Thurwachter, managing editor

A yellowed newspaper clipping floated out of the Christmas card my sister Susie sent in December. 

“That’s me!” I yelped, getting a quizzical look from my husband across the breakfast table.

Beneath a photo of a smiling me was story about how, at age 23, I had become the youngest community newspaper editor in the state of Wisconsin.

The realization hit me like a ton of ink: I’ve been working for newspapers a long time. In fact, I’ve been a journalist for more years than I had lived when that picture was taken. I’ve even been working in Palm Beach County for more years than that. 

My career path was never set in stone. As a shy girl with four brothers and three sisters, I do remember preferring writing over talking. When asked as a third-grader to pen (er, pencil) a short essay on what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wrote “a shepherd.” 

I’m pretty sure I had never seen a real sheep at the time. Undoubtedly, a richly detailed drawing of Jesus and herd of sheep in a book I had received for my First Communion was then etched in my memory.

When asked to write my own obituary in a basic college journalism class (sorry, I don’t remember what I wrote), the professor gave me an “A” and I was on my way. Becoming a reporter was a good track for a shy girl. It gave me a reason to ask questions I likely would not have asked otherwise. Some might say it helped me bloom.

Surely it helped bolster my confidence. In 1979, I packed up my Ford Fiesta and drove to Boca Raton, my very first home in Florida. I didn’t have a job or know a soul here. 

I began working for the South County bureau of The Evening Times, which later merged with The Palm Beach Post. For a few years, I was the editor of the Delray Beach News Journal. 

Two years ago, I left The Post and began working as a freelance writer/editor and Web designer.

I don’t know how much I bloomed. What I do know is that I have a great fondness for people. I like hearing their stories. And I like sharing them with others. 

A new I-95 interchange at Spanish River Boulevard in Boca Raton has been officially adopted as a future development project by the Florida Department of Transportation.

So says County Commissioner Steven Abrams, who is a member of the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Numerous traffic analyses performed during the past few years have shown that this segment of I-95 does not meet the required standards, mainly because of the high levels of congestion. 

“I have been working on this since my first days as mayor, and it has finally come to fruition,” Abrams says. “It will provide needed relief to Glades Road and Yamato Road, two of the county’s most congested interchanges.” 

The proposed airport/FAU interchange will connect to Spanish River Boulevard, extending from Military Trail on the west to A1A on the east.  It will provide a back entrance to FAU’s campus while providing relief on Glades Road, and eliminate residential cut-through traffic via Yamato Road. 

One of the main reasons for the interchange is to serve FAU, which has a new campus master plan that shows explosive growth for commuter and local students.  Currently, there are approximately 15,000 students at the Boca campus, of whom more than 12,000 are commuters.  

FAU is also planning a Division 1 football stadium large enough to seat 40,000 people and will be used for other events, such as concerts. 

The proposed interchange is part of the Five-Year Work Program and is scheduled to begin late in 2014.

— Staff report

By Thom Smith

If you had hoped to catch a pre-Oscar screening of Black Swan or The Social Network at the Sunrise Cinemas 8 in Mizner Park, change your plans. The multiplex closed down in mid-January amid a wealth of rumors and misinformation.

This much is true: The cinema is closed. Furnishings and signage are gone, but it is expected to reopen in several months. The new tenant will be the original tenant, AMC.

Claims of broken leases and failure to pay rent by previous operator Frank Theatres are unfounded, Frank President Bruce Frank said. 

“We were just a management company in there for a few months,” he said.   

Sunrise Cinemas had held the lease for 10 or 12 years. Then last July, Frank Theatres acquired some, but not all, of Sunrise’s assets, including Deerfield Mall, The Gateway in Fort Lauderdale, Plantation Crossroads and Sunrise 11. Mizner was not included, but Frank agreed to run Mizner and some others for Sunrise. 

After a falling out between Sunrise and Mizner Park management, the two parties reached an agreement last June, Frank said, that included forgiveness of back rent and a termination of the lease this January. 

“All Frank Theatres did was provide interim operation between Sunrise and the landlord to keep it going through Christmas,” Frank said.

“That said, the landlord has told us they have a lease structure to convert the facility to a theater with food service. That is what is expected to go there and the theater operator is expected to make a serious investment to do that.”

The new operator, AMC, will follow the trend long in effect at six premiere screens at Cinemark’s Palace 20 by the Boca Airport, and recently added a few blocks away at Florida Atlantic University’s four-screen boutique Living Room Theaters.

Frank, which operates cinemas in eight states, will pursue an even more ambitious concept at its new Marketplace of Delray project, west of the Turnpike on Atlantic Avenue. Construction is expected to begin this spring with an opening anticipated in late summer or early fall of 2012. 

“We’ll have 12 screens, premiere seating and a 16-lane bowling alley,” Frank said, while admitting he has doubts about full-service theaters. 

“You can take in a cocktail, you can take in sushi,” he said. “But I’m not sure I’m comfortable with having a waitress coming down the aisle.

“I go to movies for the silence, for the comfort, for what is in front of me, not what is beside me. If you’re having lasagna while I’m having popcorn, I’m not sure if I
would want to go. But we’ll see.”   Ú

The Boca Raton Symphonia quartet offers some classical
fare for partiers at the home of Patti Carpenter.
From left: Mei Mei Luo (violin), Rob Prester (piano),
Christopher Glansdorp (cello) and Jeff Kaye (trumpet). Photo by Thom Smith

By Thom Smith

Gunther Schuller welcome in Florida, at last!

“I’ve been all over, played and conducted in the greatest halls in the world, but Florida never wanted me.”

That’s Gunther Schuller, musician extraordinaire, lamenting the fact that until the Boca Raton Symphonia called, he had not had the pleasure of sharing his extraordinary talents with residents of the Sunshine State. However, Sunday at St. Andrew’s School, the audience was thrilled that Schuller was finally getting his due in Florida. He conducted a program of Mozart, Haydn, Prokofiev, Ibert and Schuller, with guest performance by cellist Sujin Lee, a protégé of Itzhak Perlman. 

Gunther Schuller, left

Two nights before, Schuller and Lee were able to relax at a reception at the Intracoastal waterfront home of Patti Carpenter. Joining Carpenter in welcoming a few select guests including, Jim and Marta Batmasian  and Office Depot exec Steve Schmidt were Symphony President Steve Pomeranz and Boca Raton Mayor Susan Whelchel.

The 17-year-old cellist Lee keeps a busy schedule, working in concerts when she can. In addition to studying music at Juilliard, she’s majoring in English and psychology at Columbia. 

 Sujin Lee

A decade of Decadence. Although the words look almost identical, they come from different roots — 10 and decay — but when it comes to the 10th year of Boca’s Chocolate Decadence, they mean the same: one incredible good time … if, of course, you love chocolate. 

Set for Feb. 3 at the Shoppes at Boca Center, the bash will feature chocolate delights — with a little wine to cleanse the palate — from more than 20 restaurants, vendors and private clubs in the Boca area, including Cucina Mio, Lola, Seasons 52, The Melting Pot, City Fish, Rocco’s Tacos and Wild Olives. Tickets are $35 in advance, $45 at the door (a $75 limited VIP pass includes open bar, more food and goody bag) and proceeds go to the Junior League of Boca’s community programs. 

The party starts at 6:30, but amateur chocolateurs who believe they have the end-all chocolate recipe can prepare it and bring it to Boca Center at 4:30 p.m. for the Mix and Melt contest. Entry fee is $25 (a donation to the Junior League) and the winner gets a free VIP ticket. (www.bocachocolate.com or 620-4778, Ext. 1) 

More decadence. 

If you’re not a bum, but you’ve got a good bum and a desire to serve, then you might be just right for … Butlers in the Buff. 

“The male order company” offers living party rentals — in white collar and cuffs, black bow tie and black apron (not wrap-around) — to serve drinks and hors d’oeuvres. All fully above board. Conceived in England, where more than 250 tie one (apron) on, the concept spread to Australia and has now reached the colonies with the first franchise in Florida. 

Prospective butlers — and customers — should visit  www.ButlersInTheBuff.com or call (941) 309-5430.

With all the recent hubbub about Wikileaks, I’ll be interested to hear the take of America’s most famous “leaker,” Daniel Ellsberg. The man who released the top-secret Pentagon Papers in 1971 speaks Feb. 16 at 3 p.m. at FAU’s Alan B. Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency. Tickets are only $12 (www.fauevents.com or 800 564-9539). A day earlier, George Herring, a leading authority on the Vietnam War and the Pentagon Papers, will lead a discussion after a screening of the The Most Dangerous free VIP ticket. (www.bocachocolate.com or 620-4778, Ext. 1) 

Jessica Harper

She was an understudy in the original Broadway production of Hair; she starred in films by Woody Allen and Brian De Palma; she’s stayed busy in TV for four decades; she’s made award-winning children’s recordings; and she’s a crabby cook.

So much so, that Jessica Harper (My Favorite Year, Stardust Memories, Pennies From Heaven) wrote a cookbook titled The Crabby Cook, recounting her adventures in preparing meals for her husband, who said he would eat anything (except onions, garlic, peppers, scallions, eggplant, squash, shellfish, most meat, spices, all non-chocolate desserts) and kids who “ate only white food.” 

Out of this came a realization that she could cook simply but effectively and on Feb. 5, she’ll recount her adventures at the Publix Apron’s Cooking School at the Polo Shoppes Publix on Military Trail just north of Clint Moore Road. (www.publix.com/aprons or 994-4883).  

The menu includes Parmesan crisps; spicy nuts; slammin’ yam soup; My Favorite Chicken (chicken with apples); hot slaw; Tom’s Brownies. Cost is $45, and guests just might learn how to save a little time in the kitchen and have a little more to watch a Harper movie on DVD. 

Enjoying some down time in Delray at the Seagate Hotel, actor Morgan Freeman … Semi-hometown boy Andy Roddick headlines the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, Feb. 18-27, and John McEnroe once again will play a few games in the middle of Atlantic Avenue. Big Mac’s opponent will be Swede Mats Wilander for the “Grand Slam grudge match” at 5:30 on Feb. 18. No charge.

Last seen in these parts as chef-de-nom at The Office in Delray, Mark Militello parted company with owner David Manero last spring, and popped up at Trina on Lauderdale beach. Time’s up. 

Trina’s concept changed, Militello said, so he’s trudging a few miles up the beach to create Cabo Blue, a grill and tequila bar in the new Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort. Ocean view. Authentic Mexican fare. Maybe even a taco cart on the street next to the pier …  And eventually, he wants to open a Mark’s of some sort in Delray.

’Tis the peak of the season, thus ’tis the time to tour. Especially things historical, such as the Boca Raton Resort & Club and the old Seaboard railway station. In the Roaring ’20s, northern visitors stepped off the train at the station and were shuttled a half-mile east to the resort. Neither the rail cars nor the resort were air-conditioned then, but in the winter, most visitors had no trouble choosing between the snow of Boston and balm of Boca. Compared to the hurry-up-and-wait of modern air travel, a train trip was pure heaven.

The old station has been restored, and it’s air-conditioned now, as are the gleaming post-World War II streamline dining and club cars. Any chill in the caboose and vintage locomotive is aftermarket.

The station tour, offered from 1-4 p.m. on the first and third Fridays of the month through March and the first Friday in April and May, costs $5 for adults, $2 for students, nothing for kids under 6. 

On the first and third Tuesdays of each month through May, guided walking tours of Addison Mizner’s spectacular resort are offered at 2 p.m. Charge is $15, plus a $10 per car valet parking charge, unless, of course, you choose to walk to the hotel. Reservations are required. 

For a broader sense of the town and its history, the Society’s Trolley Tour takes visitors to the Mizner-designed town hall (now the society’s headquarters), The Addison (then Mizner’s apartment, a real estate office and small restaurant, now a big restaurant), Old Floresta and modern Mizner Park. Twenty bucks, at 10 a.m. on the second Thursday of each month through May. 

Call 395-6766 or go to  www.bocahistory.org for reservations.

Thom Smith is a freelance writer. He can be reached at thomsmith@ymail.com

Red Reef Park’s splintery boardwalk is getting a 21st-century makeover. “They’ve been out there 30 years, and it’s time,’’ said Bob Langford, executive director of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District. Low bidder for the Red Reef project was Hollywood-based Enco LLC, at $928,859. The firm will rebuild the coastal dune boardwalk, pavilions and four dune crossovers. 

Enco also will reconstruct a pavilion at James A. Rutherford Park on the west side of the Intracoastal for $59,361. 

Construction on the beach must be completed before March 1, when sea turtles begin nesting.

Boca Raton operates and maintains Red Reef Park; the Beach and Park District reimburses the city.

Langford said Red Reef’s boardwalk and parking lots were the first improvements made in the beach park. 

— Steve Plunkett

By Steve Plunkett

The city, which last summer installed parking meters on Palmetto Park Road east of the Intracoastal Waterway, might now assume ownership of the road.

Palm Beach County, which owns the highway, told city officials it will not permit meters there, City Manager Leif Ahnell told City Council members in January. The alternative, Ahnell said, was for Boca Raton to take over the road, which would require repaving every 15 to 20 years.

“We could ask the county to please repave it before they turn it over to us,’’ council member Susan Haynie said. 

She and other council members agreed that having the road under city jurisdiction would allow Boca Raton to more easily redevelop the area.

 The city is installing paver bricks at Palmetto Park Road intersections west of the Intracoastal as part of a streetscape improvement project.

Palmetto Park Road has 59 metered parking spaces between the Intracoastal and State Road A1A. 

Meters were also installed along Red Reef Park West and East Spanish River Boulevard and in
Mizner Park.          

Marliss Hadeed, who has lived in Highland
Beach nearly 30 years,  heads the FAU Foundation's
University Club. Photo by Tim Stepien

By Mary Thurwachter

After Hurricane David blew into Palm Beach County in 1979 — just in time to ruin Labor Day weekend and collapse the jai alai fronton — Marliss Hadeed and her then-husband, John Sudbay, drove north from their home in Pompano Beach to check out the damage for themselves.

They never made it to Palm Beach that day, but it had nothing to do with the weather. On their drive up A1A, they saw a construction trailer for a seaside condo called Beach Walk East in Highland Beach. The pre-construction plans so impressed them, they bought a condo on the spot.

In 1981, when they moved into the condo, the couple had the entire building to themselves for several months, Hadeed said. Highland Beach has been her home ever since.

She has forged many friendships in the town over the years. One of those friends invited her to become a member of the University Club, a branch of Florida Atlantic University’s Foundation devoted to helping the university’s library and raising money for scholarships.

That was 18 years ago. 

“My friend moved away, but I’m still here,” Hadeed said. In fact, she is the organization’s president. Her term will end in April, but she will stay on as a board member.

“We’re a friendly group,” Hadeed said, sitting at her kitchen table. From there, she has a postcard pretty view of a handful of kite surfers gliding across the waves outside. Occasionally, Hadeed hosts soirees at the condo for members of the University Club. The organization has about 100 members; a fourth of them are board members, too.

Started by eight women in 1976, the University Club has raised about $1 million over the years for the FAU library and for many scholarships. Money is raised during annual fundraisers, dinner theaters, brunches and silent auctions.

“It’s open to anybody who might like to join,” Hadeed said. “It’s a fine organization and we’re all friends.” 

Last year, the club hosted a reception for FAU’s new president, Mary Jane Saunders, at the Delray Beach Club, where Hadeed also serves as president. 

Most of the money raised by the University Club goes to the library, she said, but over the years the group began to fund small scholarships, as well.

“We try to give $1,000 need scholarships,” Hadeed explained. “In this economy we can’t afford four-year scholarships.”

While not an alumna of FAU, Hadeed’s granddaughter is studying exercise science there. Sometimes she comes over to dinner with friends giving her grandfather, who has Lebanese roots, a chance to show off his Middle Eastern cooking skills.

Born and reared on a farm in northern Iowa, Hadeed was the only girl in her family. Having four brothers had it advantages, she said. She didn’t have to do many chores.

“I was a tomboy,” she said. “My father didn’t want me to play basketball at school because he thought it was a boy’s sport, but I played anyway and he came to all the games.” 

She married her high school sweetheart, Lyle Hacker. After he died at age 33 in a canoeing accident, she worked as a travel agent to support their three children. 

Her second husband, John Sudbay, a general agent for the Mutual of Omaha, brought her to Florida, and eventually to Highland Beach. After Sudbay died, she married Vic Hadeed, a friend of the couple and a neighbor at Beach Walk East. All of them have been active on the condo board. Vic Hadeed is current treasurer of the condo board.

Her extended family includes 11 children, 14 grandchildren and one new great granddaughter.

The Hadeeds enjoy traveling, especially cruising, and have been on just about every cruise line, and ships from the QE2 to the Oasis. “Cruising is an easy way to travel,” she said. “We go at least once a year.”

Although she claims not to be able to sketch at all, Hadeed taught herself to paint years ago and has several examples of her artwork around her condo. Her subjects are orchids and daises, seascapes and landscapes. 

While she hasn’t been inspired to pick up a brush lately — frankly, she hasn’t had time between meetings, social functions, keeping up with family, and travel — she hopes to get back to it one day soon.

She does enjoy bridge and plays three times a week at the Delray Beach Club.

“I’m busier now than when I worked full-time,” Hadeed    laughs.                                                       

For more information about the University Club, call Laura Kraft at 297-3575 or e-mail lkraft3@fau.edu. 

John J. Chluski

By Ron Hayes 

BOCA RATON — As a top executive with ITT, John J. Chluski lived what many would consider a dream job.

As a teenager during World War II, he lived what all would call a nightmare.

Mr. Chluski, who died Jan. 3 at 87 after a long illness, was only 16 when the Nazis invaded Poland. He fled his native Warsaw with a relative and headed east, determined to fight the advancing Soviet army. And he was captured.

“My father spent his 17th birthday in a prison camp,” said his son, John W. Chluski.

Released near Kiev, Ukraine, after several months, Mr. Chluski traveled by train and bicycle across Europe and on to Algiers,  in North Africa, where he stayed until the Allies arrived in 1942.

And then his true courage came forth.

“He didn’t speak extensively about World War II,” his son said, “but over the years I got a rather complete picture.”

Still only 19, Mr. Chluski went to work for the Office of Strategic Services — forerunner of the CIA — making parachute drops into occupied France and Belgium.

“It was probably not even official,” his son said, “because he wasn’t an American citizen, but they used a lot of foreigners who could speak languages for reconnaissance missions.”

Mr. Chluski made six drops behind enemy lines, always with a single partner whom he did not know, and both with false names. “He was reluctant to describe it, but he had numerous shrapnel wounds,” his son said. “He told me once that he had dropped with a Czech partner with whom he was supposed to meet a contact in a brothel, and when they got there, the Czech saw his sister working in the brothel, which blew their cover.”

After the war, Mr. Chluski earned a degree in economics at the City of London Polytechnic and began his career as a shipping clerk. By 1968, he had become CEO of Massey Ferguson’s North American operations in Des Moines, and in 1972 joined ITT. He retired as a senior vice president in 1986, but continued as an adviser to the chairman and CEO until 1994.

Mr. Chluski, who first came to Boca Raton in the early 1970s, had been a permanent resident since 1985.

“He was an incredibly organized person,” his son recalled, “and that was his strength — keeping people and things in motion. He didn’t play golf, and he didn’t play tennis, but he traveled extensively.”

In 1938, Mr. Chluski’s father had built a new home in Warsaw, but lost it almost immediately to the German invaders. The home was later returned, his son said, and a cousin lives there today. But Mr. Chluski — the extensive traveler — did not return to his native land until 1994.

“I know why,” his son said. “He was vehemently anti-Communist. He wouldn’t return until after the Berlin Wall fell.” 

In addition to his son, Mr. Chluski is survived by his wife, Dorene; his daughter-in-law, Melissa; and a granddaughter, Chloe, all of Boca Raton.

A memorial service was held Jan. 13 at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, where he was a long-time parishioner.

Wonder what the weather is like at the Boca Raton Inlet?

Wonder no more. You can find out by visiting www.pbcgov.org/erm/beachcams.htm. You’ll find up-to-date photos of the area, a service that will be especially useful for boaters, surfers and beach goers.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Steven Abrams, who announces a new beach camera was installed early in January, says he is already hearing from residents who are happy the camera is up and running again. “Safety is key and the Boca Inlet is an extremely busy waterway so this camera is important to residents,” Abrams says.

The camera is at South Inlet Park at 1298 S. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton.      

—Staff report

By Mary Thurwachter

HIGHLAND BEACH — Friends say Anne Iffland Ryan was a loyal friend, a quick-witted conversationalist, a competitive bridge player and an avid golfer. 

Known as “Nancy,” Mrs. Ryan died on Jan. 14 at the age of 90.

The only child of William and Anna Brennan Iffland, Mrs. Ryan attended schools in Stamford, Conn., and Delray Beach. She graduated from Sacred Heart Academy in Stamford and the College of New Rochelle in New York.

She was a teacher in the Stamford Public Schools for many years and also worked in her family’s business, the Brennan Employment Agency.

Her husband, William A. Ryan Jr., who lived in Stamford most of his life, died in 1995.

After the Ryans moved to Florida, the couple lived in Delray Beach for years before moving to Highland Beach.

Mrs. Ryan was a member of St. Lucy Catholic Church in Highland Beach and a former member of Our Lady Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church in Stamford. Those who knew her remember Mrs. Ryan as a loving wife, a dear sister-in-law and a wonderful aunt.

She is survived by her two sisters-in-law,  Mrs. Rosemary Magner of Boca Raton, and Mrs. Alice Devine of Norwalk.

Besides her husband, she was preceded in death by her two brothers-in-law,Vincent A. Ryan and John D. Ryan, and her best friend and sister-in-law, Rita (Ryan) Iacovo, all formerly of Stamford, and Delray Beach. 

A funeral Mass was held at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Stamford on Jan. 22.

Donations in her honor may be made to St. Lucy Catholic Church, 3510 S. Ocean Blvd., Highland Beach.

John R. DeMarco

By Emily J. Minor

HIGHLAND BEACH — John R. DeMarco, who left his beloved Long Island in 1989 to retire to Highland Beach, died Jan. 12 surrounded by his family. He was 85.

Mr. DeMarco’s daughter, Judy Maresca, called her father “the salt of the earth who would give anyone the shirt of his back.”

“He was gentle and he was caring,” she said. “Family was the most important thing in the world to him.”

Born and raised in the Navy Yard section of Brooklyn, Mr. DeMarco was one of five children.

At 17, he joined the U.S. Army and was part of the war team that came ashore on Normandy Beach. “He was right there in the thick of it,” his daughter said.

After the war, he met his wife, Inez, through mutual friends at a New Year’s Eve party. At the time, Mr. DeMarco was studying accounting at St. John’s University in Brooklyn. The couple married in February 1950 and celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last year.

During his professional years, Mr. DeMarco took the Long Island Rail Road into the Manhattan, where he worked for several different accounting firms, eventually retiring in 1986. The following year the couple bought their home in Highland Beach and moved to Florida in 1989.

“He never wanted to come to Florida, but there was no taking him out of the state once he got a taste of it,” said his daughter.

During his years in Highland Beach, Mr. DeMarco served on the board at the Coronado condominiums. He also gave his time and expertise to the town, serving on the Highland Beach finance committee.

Mr. DeMarco had been in failing health in recent years, suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said his daughter, who said her father was hospitalized shortly before his death.

A man of devout Catholic faith, Mr. DeMarco was an everyday fixture at St. Lucy Catholic Church in Highland Beach until his recent hospitalization, attending Mass and helping set up services nearly every morning. 

“He was just a gem of a friend and a father,” his daughter said. “He was warm and caring and was everyone’s inspiration.”

Mr. DeMarco was buried with military honors at Our Lady Queen of Peace Mausoleum in Royal Palm Beach. 

Besides his wife and daughter, survivors include three sons, John, James and Jeffrey. He also is survived by seven grandchildren.