Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Rebirth of city tied to patron's generosity

John W. Galbraith has moved away but his legacy as a businessman and benefactor remains.

By MARY JANE PARK
Published July 17, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - For a struggling downtown, businessman John W. Galbraith was the right man at the right time.

The early 1990s found St. Petersburg in a tough spot. The city had languished for a decade and a half and spent millions of taxpayer dollars on a domed baseball stadium that had no team and was seldom used.

A handful of notable players would usher St. Petersburg in to its current resurgence, and Galbraith's contribution was key. The mutual fund executive invested millions of dollars from his personal fortune in the Florida International Museum.

"I think that kick-started the redevelopment of downtown," said Ira Mitlin, who persuaded Federated Department Stores to donate the old Maas Brothers department store building for the museum.

"I can't find the words that I have for admiration for this man. All the accolades you can shower on him, he deserves more."

Civic leaders talked last week about the broad reach of Galbraith's philanthropy. He and his wife, Rosemary, recently sold their home in St. Petersburg and moved to Charlottesville, Va., to be near their two daughters. The couple are traveling and have been unavailable for an interview.

"I would say he is the strongest benefactor the city has had in the last 10 or 15 years," said Mayor Rick Baker, a lawyer who represented Galbraith's business and personal interests before he ran for office.

"I don't consider them to be gone, at this point. Even though they've sold their condo, they'll maintain relationships to the community."

In the late 1980s and early '90s, Major League Baseball flirted with the Sunshine City, then broke its heart. Its once-grand downtown waterfront hotels, the Vinoy and the Soreno, were empty shells.

Strategists looked to Memphis, which had staged a blockbuster cultural showing that focused on Catherine the Great. In the former downtown store, they opened the Florida International Museum in 1995. Its first exhibit was "Treasures of the Czars."

The event brought in 600,000 people, among them travel writers from throughout the country.

"The rest is history," said David Fischer, who was mayor at the time. "I think of it as a pivotal point. It really ignited us.

"John was right there for this city as he had been for two decades, as he always has been," said Fischer, who now heads the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay. "He was everywhere, and very modest and very humble about it."

Craig Sher, president and chief executive of the Sembler Co., which developed BayWalk, said Galbraith was integral in downtown's development.

"His commitment to everything from the Florida International Museum to Albert Whitted Field has set the standards by which the rest of us follow. The success of the FIM exhibits certainly contributed to helping us get up the nerve to build BayWalk. He and Rosemary will leave big philanthropic shoes to fill," said Sher, also the current chairman of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce.

Galbraith brought the Templeton mutual funds management companies to town in 1978. He and Mrs. Galbraith moved into the Bayfront Tower, and two years later he bought the rococo Snell Arcade. His business flourished, and the Galbraiths became major contributors to numerous institutions.

A pilot, he recently agreed to donate money for a new terminal at Albert Whitted Municipal Airport and offered to lend the city $3.2-million, interest-free, to begin the project. His contributions have sustained the Florida Orchestra and Eckerd College, where he served as chairman of the board of trustees in the mid to late 1980s.

"Colleges were struggling at that time," said Fischer, who also served on Eckerd's board. "When John became a philanthropist at Eckerd College, he did it in trying times."

The Galbraiths gave money to establish the school's marine sciences program and later donated more than $6.5-million to construct a library.

"The marine sciences complex was an important step for Eckerd because it brought Eckerd more on to the national scene," said P.N. "Bud" Risser, who served with Galbraith on the Eckerd board and on several corporate boards.

"John is one of the more remarkable human beings I've ever met," said Risser, the chief executive of Risser Oil and Rally Stores. "He is so understated in everything that he does, and he has less ego than anybody I've ever met."

The college "desperately needed a library," Risser said.

"You hated to go back to John again, but we did. He has never been about taking credit himself. It's always about being of service to the community and the people he cares about."

[Last modified July 17, 2005, 01:06:14]