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He spent his life serving Pasco schools

Chester W. Taylor Jr. was a beloved schools superintendent, teacher, war veteran and father of four. He has died at age 80.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published August 8, 2005

Chester W. Taylor Jr. loved to dance. Back in the day, his Dade City friends and neighbors looked forward to those parties and community balls when they could watch Mr. Taylor and his wife, Vera, steal the dance floor.

"They could dance like Fred Astaire and one of his girls," said Dallas Ted Parker, one of Mr. Taylor's longtime friends and colleagues.

Today in Pasco County, the name Chester W. Taylor is best recognized because of the Zephyrhills elementary school named in his honor.

But before he died Saturday at age 80, Chester W. Taylor, the man - beloved teacher, four-term schools superintendent, war veteran and father of four - spent a lifetime serving Pasco County in ways that those who've been here a while say are still visible in the family and community he leaves behind.

Mr. Taylor was elected superintendent in 1956, becoming the 11th schools chief to lead Pasco County. When he took office in January 1957, Dade City was the center of education in the 6,000-student district. Over the next 16 years, he watched from his first-floor office in the old Dade City courthouse as the county's population started shifting to the west. An influx of 300 kids a year in 1956 turned into a gush 3,000 per year by the time he left office in 1972.

Mr. Taylor responded to the need by building west side schools and, in 1972, was instrumental in getting voter approval for a $15.9-million bond for at least eight more.

Glen Jackson, a retired school administrator hired by Mr. Taylor in 1962, said Mr. Taylor's leadership style was strict but respected. A combat veteran of World War II, Mr. Taylor believed everything should be just so to represent a well-functioning school district.

If the grass at one school was overgrown, all the principals would hear about it at the start of the districtwide principal's meeting, Jackson said. "He was really good at getting everyone going," Jackson said. "But when he left that meeting, it was everyone's job to run their own schools."

Racial integration in schools happened on Mr. Taylor's watch. While school districts across the country turned to busing black students miles from home to achieve the integration, Mr. Taylor sought to avoid that often painful solution and found a way to keep children of both races in their neighborhood schools without busing.

Before becoming superintendent, Mr. Taylor won the adoration of his students at Pasco High School, where he taught business and government.

"I don't know how many teachers would want to go on a train trip to Washington, D.C., with a bunch of teenagers," said Mary Giella, one of Mr. Taylor's former students, describing a field trip he once organized. "But he did."

Her class of 1956 dedicated its yearbook to him, thanking him for his "interest in all our activities, his patience with us, and his steadfast friendship for us."

After retiring from 22 years in K-12 education, Mr. Taylor joined the faculty of Saint Leo College, teaching real estate and, in 1974, becoming dean of the military education program before retiring in 1988.

Mr. Taylor is also credited with helping bring Pasco-Hernando Community College here in 1972. Mr. Taylor lobbyed legislators and helped lay the groundwork for the first campus to be built in Dade City.

Besides his public work, those who knew him said his family was his pride.

Mr. Taylor and wife Vera, his high school sweetheart, raised their four children together until she died with lupus in 1970. For years after her death, even after it stopped working, he wore a round-faced watch she'd given him, his son Chet Taylor recalled. Several years later, Mr. Taylor's residence was burglarized and he lost the watch and a car, cash, a class ring and other belongings.

"The car, that didn't matter. The $100 in his pocket, that didn't matter," said Chet Taylor, a Dade City veterinarian. "But that watch, he would have given anything to have it back."

Mr. Taylor continued to find dance partners in almost anyone who would oblige, but he never remarried. He raised his children into adulthood alone with a style his son described as strict and soft, but always fair.

"I have never seen four children any more proud of their dad," said Jean Larkin-Weightman, Pasco County School Board member and friend of the family.

Besides Chet, Mr. Taylor is survived by his other children, Karen Pike, of Lake Worth and Ann Filip and Rusty Taylor, both of Port St. Lucie. He also leaves behind 14 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

In the years after his retirement, Chester Taylor could often be found reminiscing with his friends during their traditional 3 p.m. coffee chat sessions at McDonald's in Dade City. He loved getting out and visiting with people. He continued dancing until about 10 years ago when, his son said, his body began to give out. Frostbite suffered during World War II came back to haunt him, causing him to lose his ability to walk.

Though born in Sanford, Mr. Taylor lived in Dade City from a young age and never found any other place he loved as much. Nowhere else could replace the joy he found stopping in the post office and staying there for 20 minutes to chat. "Dad knew everyone and everyone loved him," Chet Taylor said. "Dade City was all he knew."

Funeral services will be in the chapel of Hodges Family Funeral Home in Dade City at 1 p.m. today with burial to follow at Floral Memory Gardens. Donations may be made to Florida Lions Camp for the Disabled, 2819 Tiger Lake Road, Lake Wales, FL 33898.

[Last modified August 8, 2005, 02:45:22]