Remembering, Bill Gillespie, NSB community friend and advocate

I had the honor of knowing Bill Gillespie for more than 50 years and would like to tell some of the stories about Bill along with some he liked to tell on himself. To make this blog entry complete, it should be pointed out that Bill had a prodigious number of accomplishments in his lifetime all the way from being an eagle scout and NSB High School football star to becoming a state senator and having a hand in many path breaking pieces of legislation.

In spite of his accomplishments, Bill was the most unassuming easy to get along with person you could imagine. You would always feel comfortable around him.

In short it was impossible not to like him whether or not you agreed with him.

He passed away Saturday at the age of 80 to cancer. His service Wednesday was attended by hundreds.

One thing about him was that he seemed to enjoy talking and joking about his shortcomings rather than his successes. In fact it is hard to remember a situation in which he did talk about his successes.

Bill's academic record was less than stellar and he liked to joke about how mad his father got with his slow progress through school.

On one occasion he took the time to talk at length with my son about the practice of law.

Peter had just finished law school at Loyola and was in the process of getting ready to take the bar exam.

As the conversation was winding down Bill said, "Remember, Peter, the bar exam gets easier each time you take it. I took me many times but I finally passed it."

At this point Bill launched into a description of how mad his father got about his inability to pass the exam and had a good laugh about it.

Bill life-guarded during the summer of 1955. The guys weren’t above playing tricks on him.

On one occasion he was trying to catch a nap on the floor of the lifeguard headquarters. He was about half asleep when Bill Daniels and Charlie Rush brought in a big clump of wet seaweed.

The said just loud enough for Bill to hear, "Look at this strange animal we found out in the ocean."

Then they dropped it right beside Bill. He jumped three feet in the air convinced it was some type of dangerous sea animal. When he realized that it was just seaweed he had as good a laugh as anyone.

One last story Bill liked to tell about himself concerned a person he saw at the Smyrna Yacht Club one night. Bill was sure he knew the man so he finally went over to him and asked: "You look so familiar, haven’t we met somewhere?"

The man replied, "We sure have, I was an MP in Tokyo and threw you in the brig one night when you were drunk.”

To complete the picture of Bill Gillespie, he worked one summer on the railroad for my father-in-law, former New Smyrna City Commissioner and Mayor Ed Altman.

Evidently Bill was a good worker because Mr. Altman thought the world of Bill Gillespie.

My late wife, Jackie, always jokingly wondered if Bill was really a good worker or just knew how to look like he was working when her father was watching. Bill’s record of accomplishment indicates he was probably working.