The Royal Palm King

I'm completing my second year term as the President of Historic Roser Park. I was elected VP in April '99 and a couple months later reluctantly took over as President when our previous leader had to resign because of health problems. To make my ascension a little less painful I asked that my new title be ''The Royal Palm King'', (a name I chose after the Royal Palms in our park). We never got it into the Bylaws but have amused ourselves (myself) through this self coronation. Along with the splendor of a noble title I dictated that a special salute be made to acknowledge me and I started to spread rumors about my mythological heredity. I believe, as a descendant of the Egyptian Sun God Ra, there were days in the past when I was appreciated more, but there are few days that I have enjoyed more. I don't get saluted much, but at this point in time Historic Roser Park is making great strides in its restoration and is gaining greater recognition for its unique beauty and charm. And it has some pretty darned good neighbors too, since they have put up with my shenanigans so far.

A Native

My parents moved to St. Petersburg from Bangor, Maine when I was just 6 months old, and I grew up on the West side of town. My father was an amateur archeologist during most of my childhood and that gave me a special appreciation for St. Petersburg's past and the Tocobaga Indians that lived here. After graduating from the University of South Florida I got involved with the restoration of Janus Landing and that sort of led me to Roser Park. I have lived here for 19 years and have seen it go through many positive changes.
I am now pretty active in the neighborhood association but that wasn't always so. I didn't think there was much that us ''little folk'' could do and I also kind of figured that the city government would recognize the asset we were and facilitate the important changes that needed to be made. But of course I was wrong and eventually realized that the real improvements were being pushed through by my hard working neighbors. It took me a while but that is why I became more involved.

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