Senate Bill sb0006D

    Florida Senate - 2002        (NP)                       SR 6-D

    By Senator Brown-Waite





    10-2357B-02

  1                    Senate Resolution No. ____

  2         A resolution commemorating the life of Alfred

  3         A. McKethan of Hernando County.

  4

  5         WHEREAS, Alfred A. McKethan, Brooksville native,

  6  philanthropist, and Florida Gator booster was a

  7  fourth-generation Floridian who exerted great influence in

  8  banking, road planning, and citrus, and

  9         WHEREAS, Mr. McKethan started working in his father's

10  bank at age 15 and later boasted that he had done every job in

11  the bank before being appointed the youngest president of the

12  Florida Bankers Association at age 38, and

13         WHEREAS, Alfred McKethan's many accomplishments

14  included: heading the State Road Board that brought about the

15  original Sunshine Skyway, helping to choose a site for Eckerd

16  College, and serving as the first chairman of the Southwest

17  Florida Water Management District board, and

18         WHEREAS, Mr. McKethan was active in the Florida Bankers

19  Association, serving as its president in 1946-47 and, during

20  20 years as its legislative liaison, guiding the formation of

21  state and federal banking laws, and

22         WHEREAS, he contributed generously of his wealth to the

23  county hospital and the public library, to Pasco-Hernando

24  Community College, and to the University of Florida, which

25  named its baseball stadium for him, and

26         WHEREAS, he had the ear of Presidents and Governors and

27  was honored by Governor Lawton Chiles and the Cabinet in 1994

28  for a lifetime of service to the state, and

29         WHEREAS, he was a founder of Florida Citrus Mutual, the

30  giant grower cooperative established in 1954, and

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    Florida Senate - 2002        (NP)                       SR 6-D
    10-2357B-02




  1         WHEREAS, Mr. McKethan successfully sought to create the

  2  Southwest Florida Water Management District and was the first

  3  chairman of the district's governing board, and

  4         WHEREAS, he enjoyed a 71-year career at his family's

  5  bank, retiring in 1994 from the institution originally called

  6  Hernando State Bank and later SunBank and Trust Co., part of

  7  SunTrust Banks, Inc., and

  8         WHEREAS, he was noted for hosting spirited gatherings

  9  of his family and friends at his homes in Brooksville and

10  Bayport, as well as for his legendary generosity and his

11  business and political acumen, and

12         WHEREAS, his active and accomplished life came to an

13  end on April 1, 2002, at age 93 in the county that he loved so

14  well and served so effectively, NOW, THEREFORE,

15

16  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:

17

18         That the Florida Senate pays its respect to Alfred A.

19  McKethan as, in the words of Senator Bob Graham, "a giant in

20  the generation that built modern Florida" and expresses its

21  condolences to his daughter Mary Celia Buckner, to his sister

22  Dorothy Mason, and to his grandchildren and

23  great-grandchildren.

24         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution,

25  with the Seal of the Senate affixed, be presented to Mary

26  Celia Buckner and the family of Alfred McKethan as a token of

27  the sentiments expressed herein.

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