Last week I had the pleasure of having my book consultant, Philippa Burgess of Creative Convergence, as my houseguest. Philippa came in part to attend a seminar in Orlando, but she cut out blocks of time to meet some of the “cast of characters” from the book.
King of Casselberry took on a different meaning to Philippa, as she met Len and Jane Casselberry, and Hibbard Jr. Few people know this city’s history like these three people. All of them have great memories and fat scrapbooks that I’ve invaded over the last fifteen years. They knew Hibbard as a man, father, businessman, and visionary. Three of Len and Jane’s children – Rick, Melenda, and Cathy – were there too, and talked about the man they knew as Grandpa. His greatest hope was that all his children and grandchildren would live, work and raise their families in Casselberry. While some of them do, others are spread out from California to Africa.
Another day, Philippa and I visited Anne Blood, who was Hibbard’s private secretary for ten years, and then stayed with the company another forty. She retired for the third time in 2008 at the age of 91. During her time with us, Anne kept the press-clipping books. When she found articles written about the city, she clipped, pasted, and filed them away. What looked like scrapbooks became the backbone of my research for the Sixties, a wild growth period when the Space Race, the Cuban missile crisis, Viet Nam, and Disney World all made headlines.
Having good schools for the city and the area was always important to Hibbard. His first pitch for an institution of higher learning was in the 1950s. He snatched Douglas Stenstrom, then a county judge, off the streets of Sanford and rushed him to OrlandoMunicipalAirport. When a caravan of cars arrived to deliver Col. Charles Lindberg, head of site selection for the US Air Force Academy, back to his plane, Hibbard sent Stenstrom up to present information on an area site. That was Hibbard – always reaching for the stars! A Casselberry site was a leading contender for the University of Central Florida. Later, he tried his best to clench the SeminoleCommunity College at the same location. Our current schools would make him quite proud. However, having failed to convince the School Board of the need for teaching Greek and Latin in school, the curriculum of the GenevaSchool would be Hibbard’s idea of academic heaven
Next time, I’ll share with you our trip to see John at Brightwater — and the Hibbard I never knew, as told by his best friend and companion in his last two years, Betty Jean Knight.
In the meantime, you can read more at: www.kingofcasselberry.com – and you can check out what Philippa does at www.creativecvg.com.
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