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Formal name change would continue legacy

John Durney's family has wanted an island named in his honor since 1975. Almost five years after his death, their wish might come true.

By CAMILLE C. SPENCER
Published July 25, 2006

The costume party's theme was famous lovers.

Romeo and Juliet mingled with Lucy and Ricky in Niles and Cherry Kinnunen's home in New Port Richey. The hosts dressed as Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI.

Then, John and Ann Durney showed up.

Ann was dressed like a hobo. John wore a white tie and tails.

"Somebody made the remark that he probably wears that to bed," said Niles Kinnunen, the Durney family's dentist.

John Durney was known for being an impeccable dresser, a poet, a businessman and mayor of both Port Richey and New Port Richey, at different times. He drove a Rolls-Royce and traveled around the world, including as a docent for the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.

Almost five years after Durney's death in a motorcycle accident in Schroon Lake, N.Y., his stepson Tim Gamble contacted the U.S. Board on Geographic Names in hopes of having Durney Key, a spoil island in the Gulf of Mexico, officially named after his stepfather.

Gamble also wants to have the island recognized on maps.

On existing maps, it's an unnamed blotch in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, about a mile north of the mouth of Pithlachascotee River.

The island has been informally referred to as Durney Key since 1975, because of Durney's work with his father-in-law, Ernest Oberdorf, and the Pithlachascotee River Improvement Association to dredge the spoils that created the island.

At the time, Oberdorf wrote a letter to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names asking that the island be named Durney Key.

But the board told Oberdorf that an island can't be named after someone until after the person's death. Even so, Durney's friends held a dedication ceremony Sept. 1, 1975, and put up a sign that marked Durney Key. That one was made of wood.

That sign couldn't handle high winds, so a second metal sign was posted. It didn't last either.

While signs came and went, Durney died in October 2001. He left behind Ann and his stepsons Tim and Ned Gamble.

In honor of Durney, on April 6, 2003, his friends dedicated a steel sign that stands today and gathered for a ceremony on the island.

The 8-foot sign reads "Durney Key. State of Florida. Property of its people. Protect our birds."

The day after the dedication, Tim Gamble wrote the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to have Durney Key recognized on maps.

But the board's rules have changed since Oberdorf wrote his letter in 1975.

Not only do individuals have to be dead before a landmark can be named after them, but also recognition can't occur until five years after the death.

In Durney's case, that will be October.

Gamble, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., sees his efforts to have the island officially named as a continuation of Durney's legacy.

"The idea was started in 1975 by my grandfather and some of John Durney's other friends," Gamble said. "I'm following after the stuff he started.

"He had this real commitment to making things better for the community. It's like the last chapter of his life."

[Last modified July 24, 2006, 20:22:13]