One of the legends of Florida politics is gone. Sam Gibbons, who represented Tampa in Congress for more than 30 years, died this morning. He was 92.
The roll call of Sam Gibbons' life reads like a short history of the 20th Century. He parachuted into Normandy behind enemy lines before sunrise on D-Day during World War II. He served in the Florida legislature and pushed through legislation establishing the University of South Florida. He represented Tampa in Congress for more than 30 years - and never lost an election.
His good friend, former Circuit Judge John Germany, lauded Gibbons during his final public appearance in July.
Germany said, “He was a lawyer in a family firm that brought him the comforts of livelihood at that time. So there was no reason to jump into politics. But he did. And that was probably one of the finest things that could have happened to this community.”
During that meeting in downtown Tampa, Gibbons reminisced about how members of Congress used to socialize at the end of the week, before the advent of the jet age allowed them to fly home on weekends. That, he says, started the path to extreme partisanship in Washington.
“Well I think it's terrible”, said Gibbons. “I think the members of Congress ought to be up in Washington working their fannies off. They're not. They go up there and demonstrate for a day and a half, get back on the airplane, fly back home, and go around making speeches at home. I don't call that governing. That's chaotic.”
Gibbons was re-elected to Congress 16 times, from the1960s through 1997. Former USF president Betty Castor says one reason for his longevity is Gibbons remembered that all politics is local.
“He handled the war on poverty legislation for Lyndon Johnson. And he made sure that as those initial programs like Head Start and Model Cities were started, that they were started in his own backyard”, said Castor. “And we had the very first Head Start program here in Tampa. And then a lot of the other programs followed. So he was always very conscious of that national mood, but he took very good care of his home community.”
His home community gave back, too. Two years ago, a standing-room-only crowd packed into the Tampa Bay History Center to celebrate his 90th birthday. One of the speakers was retired Judge E.J. Salcines.
“Sam is not only a hero, he is my mentor. As was said a little earlier, I looked up to Sam in public service, I wanted to be like Sam, 'course you can't match Sam Gibbons”, said Salcines.
Castor notes that Gibbons was part of the World War II generation that later came to be memorialized as The Greatest Generation. Gibbons even got a mention in Tom Brokaw's book of the same name.
“I think he came out of a generation that wanted to give back so much that when they arrived in the Congress or other public offices, they thought of broader solutions to our challenges”, Castor said.
That wartime experience began with a parachute jump with the 101st Airborne Division in the wee hours of June 6th, 1944.
“I landed oh, roughly seventy yards, maybe fifty yards from about 15 soldiers, German soldiers shooting up in the sky at the airplanes above us”, Gibbons remembered. “That saved my life, they could hear the airplanes, they couldn't see me because of the camouflage that I wore, and because they were night-blinded from having fired so much into the darkness.”
Gibbons shared his experiences with WUSF in a 2007 documentary "Tampa Goes to War."
“The whole 101st Airborne Division only had about 12,000 people in it. So we were really no match for 80,000 or 90,000, but you know, troops get spread out, the Germans got spread out, we just happened to land right on top of them in the thick of it and that’s an experience you never forget”, recalled Gibbons.
And Castor said during his 90th birthday party that the Tampa Bay area won't forget Gibbons for he's done for the community.
“When you think of the reach of the university and what it has meant educationally, what it’s meant scientifically, what it’s meant culturally to all of us, you just have to sit back and be in awe of this man”, Castor said.
Gibbons is survived by his second wife, Betty, sons Cliff, Mark, and Timothy, and seven grandchildren.