The People Behind The Places

Roger Dean (Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter): Dean was one of the top Chevrolet dealers in the country. The minor-league baseball complex, which opened in February 1998, was named for Dean after one of his daughters donated $1 million to construction costs. Dean died at 83 in April 1999.

John G. and Susan H. DuPuis Jr. (DuPuis Reserve, western Palm Beach and Martin counties): The Miami-based DuPuis dairy ranching family sold the land in 1986 for $23 million to the South Florida Water Management District with the stipulation it be kept natural.

William T. Dwyer (High School, Palm Beach Gardens): Dwyer, vice president for community and government relations at Pratt & Whitney, worked there from 1962 until cancer forced his retirement in 1984. He died at 58 in January 1985. Dwyer also was active in several community activities. The Economic Council of Palm Beach County established the Dwyer Award for excellence in education in 1985. The school was named for Dwyer when it opened in 1991.

Lindsay Ewing (Ewing Park, Royal Palm Beach): She contracted Reyes Syndrome at 9 months. The park was dedicated in January 1996, a month before she died at 13.

C. Scott Fletcher (Fletcher Beach Park, Stuart): The Australian-born education professional spent more than three decades trying to protect beaches from development. He helped start Save Our Beaches. The former Peters beach strip, just south of Stuart beach, was named for him in March 1975. Fletcher died in 1991.

James. S. Fogleman (Park, West Palm Beach): The 27-year-old Palm Beach County deputy was killed in 1963 when his cruiser flipped into a ditch on a rain-slicked road as he raced a dying infant and his grandmother to St. Mary’s Hospital.

Virginia Ransom Forrest (Virginia Forrest Beach Access, north of Stuart). Forrest, a longtime Stuart winter resident, was nationally recognized for helping save the bald eagle. She donated $30,000 to help buy the beach strip, which was dedicated in 1976. Forrest died in May 1991.

Phil Foster (Phil Foster Memorial County Park, Riviera Beach): The pioneer, owner of one of the town’s first tourist courts, lived in the area for 32 years before his death in 1947. The park was dedicated in January 1953.

A.J. Gaines Jr. (Gaines Park, West Palm Beach): The park, built in 1958, was named for the longtime city parks and recreation employee who was the black parks director when parks were separate.

Charles A. Gettler (Park, West Palm Beach): The park was named in 1965 for Gettler, a resident who worked to enhance the city’s beauty.

Don Pedro Gilbert (Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge): The reef off Hutchinson Island is named for a pirate who may have hidden in the St. Lucie Inlet between raids. Gilbert was later caught and hanged in 1834; he was the last of the old-time swashbuckling pirates to be executed in the United States.

Harvey Glascock (Beach, Jensen Beach): Glascock, then-owner of WSTU-AM, donated $25,000 for the beach access tract that shares his name. He died at 56 in 1977.

William Henry and Sarah Gleason (Park, Delray Beach): The early pioneers bought oceanfront land in 1870 for $1.25 an acre. In 1899, Sarah Gleason donated the land that has become the city’s municipal beach.

Genevieve Gove (Elementary School, Belle Glade): The longtime teacher conducted outdoor summer programs for children; the school was named for her in 1964.

Harry Goodmark (Park, Riviera Beach): The longtime West Palm Beach lawyer, a pioneer in workers compensation, donated several lots for the park. He retired in 1992.

Mildred Greenfield (Park, Hobe Sound): Greenfield was a longtime assistant to the Martin County Commission.

Walter R. Hooker (Hooker Highway, the Glades): Hooker was among the first businessmen to settle in the Belle Glade area, setting up a produce packing house and general store.

Edward L. Hosford (Park, Hobe Sound): Hosford, one of the original Lake Worth pioneers, was the son of a Confederate soldier. He arrived in 1891 and was a landscaper for Henry Flagler’s Royal Poinciana Hotel and later settled in Sewall’s Point, where he was responsible for much of the area’s landscaping. He served on the school board from 1930 to 1938. Hosford died at 91 in February 1962.

D.D. “Dad” Howard: (Park, West Palm Beach): Howard was the city’s longtime superintendent of Streets and Public Programs. The park was dedicated Dec. 23, 1934.

Ralph C. Howard (Howard Park, Lake Worth): The city director of public works from 1947 to 1959 died in 1960; the park was dedicated in 1966.

James A. Hutchinson (Hutchinson Island). The settler received a 2,000-acre grant in March 1803 from Florida’s Spanish governor for an area of mainland between Fort Pierce and Jensen Beach. He moved the grant to Jupiter Island in 1807, and after his death, it moved in 1827 to what is now Hutchinson Island.

Capt. Francis Asbury Hendry (Hendry County): The colorful Civil War leader and cattle industry pioneer established LaBelle and helped found Lee County, from which Hendry was split in 1923. Hendry died in February 1917.

A. G. Holley (Hospital, Lantana): Holley was a Panhandle hardware store owner and a longtime member of the state’s Tuberculosis board. Then-Rep. Wayne Mixson, later a lieutenant governor, pushed through the name change of the Southeast Florida Tuberculosis Hospital in 1965, over the objections of the Palm Beach County delegation.

Lamar D. Howard (Park, Port Salerno): The 39-year-old plumber and father of five, whose family were pioneers in the area’s Golden Gate neighborhood, was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1972.

Alex Hughes (Park, Boca Raton): A pioneer in the historic Pearl City black neighborhood in 1914, when the city had a few dozen residents, he helped get the area its first black school and formed the local African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in 1919. The park was dedicated in February 1972; he died in January 1977.

Melanie Jenkins (Jenkins Park, West Palm Beach). Jenkins was a community and church activist in the city’s Northwest neighborhood. The park was named in 1993, shortly after she died at 74 in a hit-and-run accident.

Howard L. Johnson (Elementary School, Royal Palm Beach). Johnson, principal of Melaleuca Elementary in suburban West Palm Beach for 15 years, fought for a new elementary school in burgeoning Royal Palm Beach; he died of a viral infection in 1982 and the new school he envisioned opened in his name in December 1984.

Marty Katz (Katz Field, Royal Palm Beach): Katz, president of Royal Palm Beach Colony, the original developer of the village, died in a car accident at 53 in September 1955; the park, on land he donated, was named for him in September 1996.

Ulysses B. Kinsey (U.B. Kinsey/Palmview Elementary School, West Palm Beach): The longtime Palmview principal was one of the area’s leading black educators for nearly 50 years.
Paul Knowles (Park, Delray Beach): Knowles was a city commissioner who pushed for the park.

Raymond F. Kravis (Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, West Palm Beach): Friends of the retired Oklahoma oilman and Palm Beach philanthropist honored his generosity by contributing almost $10 million of the $55 million to build the arts center in his name. It was dedicated in September 1992. Kravis died at 92 in 1993.

Col. James N. Kreamer (Kreamer Island, Belle Glade): Kreamer was the chief engineer for Hamilton Disston, the Philadelphia millionaire who bought four million acres of Central Florida for 25 cents an acre in June 1881 and began the state’s first large drainage effort.

Richard G. Kreusler (Kreusler Park, Palm Beach): Kreusler, a Palm Beach attorney, oil executive and town council member-elect, was murdered in 1976; Mark Herman, who spent 15 years in jail for the slaying, was granted clemency in 1992.

Bobbie Jo Lauter (Park, Royal Palm Beach Town Hall): The park was dedicated in November 1970, two months after the 14-year-old was killed in an accident.

Charles Leighton/John Stewart “Jock” Leighton (Park, Palm City): Scottish settler Charles Leighton and his British wife, Rose, came to the area in 1912, starting a farm on 20 acres they bought sight unseen. The family became an institution for more than 75 years. Charles Leighton died around 1941. Rose Leighton died at 94 in 1987. One park was named for their son, Charles W. Leighton, a Martin County commissioner from the Palm City area from 1950 to 1962. Another son, entrepreneur “Jock” Leighton, died in January 1998; his estate is now negotiating to sell Martin County land for a new park.

John I. Leonard (High School, Lake Worth): He was Palm Beach County schools superintendent from 1936 to 1948, when he became first president of Palm Beach Junior College. He retired from PBJC in 1958 and died in July 1961 at 75; the school named for him opened in Lake Worth four years later.

Ida Linton (Lake Ida): Delray Beach settler William Linton named the lake for his wife.

Henry L. “Bud” Lyons (Lyons Road, southern Palm Beach County): The pioneer Pompano Beach farmer and cattleman owned a large area of northwestern Broward County and his 4,000-acre bean farm was touted as the largest in the United States. He died in 1952.

Thomas B. Manuel (St. Lucie Canal bridge, Florida’s Turnpike, Martin County): “Mr. Turnpike,” a Delray Beach farmer, Fort Lauderdale mayor and banking executive, convinced state transportation officials to extend the turnpike to Miami instead of stopping at central Martin County. He died in 1987.

Gladys R. McDonald (McDonald Park, Belle Glade City Hall): The park was dedicated in 1962 to the city’s parks superintendent. She died around 1985.

Leroy “Buddy” Merritt (Park, Delray Beach): The city council member and mayoral candidate died in 1979 at 47.

Robert P. Miller (Park, Delray Beach): The Chamber of Commerce officer, who had been a teacher and baseball coach at Seacrest High School, first suggested the baseball park and helped build it. It was dedicated in April 1977.

Joe C. Mitchell (J.C. Mitchell Elementary School, Boca Raton): The Boca Raton pioneer, who came in 1923, spent 15 years as mayor and 12 years as chair of the then-separate city school board. He died in 1955; the school was named for him in 1958.

John Monahan (Big John Monahan Bridge, St. Lucie Canal and State Road 76, Indiantown): Monahan, a Fort Lauderdale dry cleaner, served on the state road board. The bridge was named in 1965.

Chester Arthur Moore (Elementary School, Fort Pierce): A grocer and railroad clerk, he went back to school and became a longtime educator and principal. The school, for blacks, opened in 1959; Moore died in 1969.

Clint Moore (Clint Moore Road, Boca Raton): The longtime farmer and paving contractor sold the property to the county.

James Moore (Town of Moore Haven): The Seattle hotel owner bought 98,000 acres at the southwestern corner of Lake Okeechobee in 1915 and created the town that became the Glades County seat. He died at 67 in San Francisco in May 1929.

Dr. James Munyon (Munyon Island, Palm Beach): The man behind Paw-Paw tonic, a mixture of sulphur water and papaya juice that sold for $1 a bottle as a cure-all, bought the island in 1901 and built the five-story, 21-room Hotel Hygeia, named after the Greek goddess of health. The hotel burned down in 1911. The island, now 45 acres, is part of John D. MacArthur Beach State Park.

Robert G. Murray (Murray Middle School, Port Salerno) Murray was a teacher from 1928 to 1937 and again from 1945 to his retirement in 1958 and was principal of Stuart Training School; the school moved to Port Salerno in 1964 and was named for the Murray family.

Col. William Herbert Murphy (Camp Murphy, now Jonathan Dickinson State Park). The strategic World War II training site was named for the Signal Corps officer and radio pioneer who died in battle Feb. 3, 1942.

C.N. Newcomb (Newcomb Hall, Riviera Beach): The pioneer, who ran a fishing camp, gave three parks to the city; the community center and dance hall was built in 1959. The park was not formally named for Newcomb until 1973; it was later renamed Bicentennial Park, but Newcomb Hall is still in use.

Cardinal John Henry Newman (Cardinal Newman High School, West Palm Beach): The 19th-century British religious leader and scholar is considered the Catholic patron saint of education.

Ralph Norton (Norton Museum of Art): Norton was a Chicago industrialist with a keen interest in art and a wife, Elizabeth, with a great eye. In 1939, the Nortons retired to West Palm Beach and built a museum for their collection. The Norton Gallery of Art opened in 1941. After Elizabeth’s death, Norton married an art instructor at the Norton school, Ann Weaver. He died in 1953 at 77. The Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens opened in 1979.

Ronald Osborne (Osborne Park, North Palm Beach): Prosperity Park was renamed in 1967 for Osborne, who was killed in Vietnam in 1966.

Duncan Padgett (Padgett Park, Pahokee): Part of a pioneer family that dated back to 1914 and mayor for 25 years, he died at 80 in 1986. The park was dedicated in May 1979.

Dr. Julian D. Parker (School of Science, Math and Technology, Stuart): He came to Stuart in 1924 in a Model-T Ford and would deliver more than 4,000 children; many “Parker babies” grew to be area leaders. He was Martin County’s only doctor for almost a decade until World War II. Parker also served on the Martin School Board from 1939 to 1957. The school was named for him in 1960. He died at 98 in 1987.

Col. Samuel H. Peck (Peck Lake Park, Hobe Sound): The Augusta., Ga., cotton broker and banker was hit hard by an 1837 financial panic and came to the Indian River region, where he ran passengers and freight on his schooner. He left 12 years later and became a noted educator and author.

George Pendarvis (Pendarvis Cove Park, Palm City): The cove of the St. Lucie River is named for the family that homesteaded the area early in the century. The park was dedicated in 1987.

Toney Penna (Toney Penna Drive, Jupiter): He played professional golf for 32 years, winning six tournaments, and became an innovative designer of clubs, with four patents. His shop opened in 1966 on the road that bears his name. He died in 1995.

Pettway (Park, Hobe Sound): The Pettways were a pioneer black family in Gomez, north of Hobe Sound.

George Petty (Park, West Palm Beach): Originally named Royal Palm Park, it was renamed in 1990 for Petty, a millionaire who was the founder and financial backbone of the city’s Good Neighbor Council and led the legal battle against airport noise.

Tags: Camp Murphy, place names