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MARTY CLEARJim Strickland started out wanting to be a physician, but changed career paths when he took over an old ice cream parlor.
PARKLAND ESTATES - People who knew Jim Strickland said he was a man's man. He withstood pain every day for the last few years of his life but never complained.
"The doctors said he was the strongest man they had ever seen," said Mr. Strickland daughter, Lonna Strickland.
The only time she saw him cry was a few months ago, when he heard the Old Meeting House was closing.
"He always thought the Old Meeting House would live beyond him," his daughter said.
He died Saturday (Jan. 31, 2004) at age 81.
In 1947, Mr. Strickland took over an old ice cream parlor on S Howard Avenue and renamed it the Old Meeting House.
Later that year, a young woman named Evah Dopp, who worked down the street, stopped in during her break. Mr. Strickland had never seen her before but immediately told a friend he was going to marry her.
Three weeks later, he did.
They were married for 56 years and had two daughters, Lonna and Lola. The older, Lonna, also met her husband at the restaurant.
"It really was a meeting house," Lonna Strickland said.
Mr. Strickland was one of Tampa's best-known restaurateurs but got into the business almost by accident.
He was born into one of Tampa's pioneering families - his grandmother had arrived from Illinois in a covered wagon - and graduated from Hillsborough High School in 1941. He attended Tulane and Emory universities as a pre-med major but interrupted his studies to join an Army medical unit during World War II.
Shortly after the war, Mr. Strickland's father died, and he returned to Tampa to be with his mother. A family friend, Tampa developer A.J. Simms, owned Cowl's Ice Cream on Howard and asked Mr. Strickland to take it over.
"He wanted to be a doctor," his daughter said. "He had a real gift for pathology. He never intended to be in the restaurant business."
It wasn't long before he realized that running a restaurant was his true calling.
"He kept up with everything, so he could talk to his friends who were doctors and he could talk to teenagers," his daughter said. "He just loved people. He was the entertainment at the Old Meeting House, and when he was behind the counter, that was his stage."
He never lost his interest in medicine and biology. When he lived in Odessa in the 1950s and 1960s, he had a laboratory in his home where he taught his daughters about science. They often dissected fish and frogs.
Mr. Strickland was an avid fisherman, outdoorsman and conservationist. He loved his lakefront home in Odessa but hated the drive to Tampa and eventually moved to Beach Park.
More than 30 years ago, the Stricklands moved to Parkland Estates near the Old Meeting House.
Mr. Strickland was diagnosed with diabetes in his 50s, and his health began to decline a few years ago. To help with his care, daughter Lonna and her husband, Jim Mench, moved in with him.
"My father said he was created in an age of wooden ships and iron men," she said. "He was the strongest man you'll ever meet, but he was also a kind and gentle man."
He is survived by his wife, two daughters and two granddaughters. He was preceded in death by his parents, Lonnie and Lola Strickland, and his brother W.A. "Bay" Strickland.