Taking care of family, employees always came first

By ANDREW MEACHAM, Times Staff Writer
Published August 14, 2007

The measure of the man that was Mike Dillon lay in the wheels he never owned - a 1979 canary yellow Corvette.

The car remained a fantasy because Dillon, a 23-year maintenance supervisor for the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, always had family responsibilities.

A photo of Patricia Dillon, his wife of 42 years, rests on a fireplace mantle at the couple's Hudson home.

Pat died July 13 of leukemia. Mike died Friday following a stroke. He was 61.

After Mike saw Pat at a wedding, he ditched his girlfriend for a chance to go out with her. They raised a family in Hillside, Ill., where Mike owned a Union 76 gas station.

He sold the gas station in 1982 to get away from subzero temperatures.

"I said, 'What about the community you'll be leaving behind?' " brother Tom Dillon recalled. "He answered every argument with, 'Yeah, but you know how much I hate the cold.' "

They moved to Seminole that summer. Everything was hot and flat. Pat threatened mutiny, and kept the movers from unloading for an hour while she weighed the family's options, including turning back to Chicago.

Mike told her to take all the time she needed.

The gas station had sold for a good price, but a failed ice cream shop and a bad investment left him behind the eight ball. Mike got a job washing buses on the graveyard shift.

He worked his way up to maintenance supervisor for the transit authority. During that time, the authority added three terminals and stayed running during near-hurricanes.

Pat worked there too, handling riders with special needs.

Daniel Hazzard, who worked under Mike for 15 years and has since taken over his job duties, remembers Mike as a gentle bulldog who put employees at ease and put the company first.

"He took good care of us," Hazzard said. "Better than most."

In 2004, Mike picked out a 5-acre spread in Hudson and kicked in extra for the down payment, so that children Anthony and Tricia could build houses there too.

While recovering from a heart attack this year, Mike wrote out a to-do list: "Put computer together. Shelf in closet. Concrete footing for shed, around well and water softener. Plant and dirt in front of house. Roof on barn. Hook TV up in spare room. Rear deck at rear of house. Turn refrigerator door around."

Doug Young, 32, Tricia's husband, said Mike showed him how to be a man.

"He showed that when you are husband and father, you are supposed to put yourself on the back burner and take care of them first."

BIOGRAPHY

Michael David Dillon

Born: May 4, 1946.

Died: Aug. 10, 2007.

Survivors: Sons Michael Jr., Anthony; daughter Tricia Young and her husband, Doug; brothers Dennis (Pat), Thomas (Mary); sisters Dorothy Dillon and Susan (Lou) Grupe; four grandchildren; many nieces and nephews.

[Last modified August 14, 2007, 00:10:51]