Lakewood Ranch veteran retires from service

Gil Pearce might not be in the military anymore, but before attending his final Lakewood Ranch Community Development District 1 meeting July 26, he stood ready for inspection at his Summerfield home.

“My supervisor makes sure I go,” Pearce said with a chuckle in reference to his wife of 62 years, Liz. “She makes sure my clothes match. Sometimes I need to have my hair cut. She always makes me look good.”

Liz sat on her couch and chuckled, but didn’t say a word.

Wearing a Kelly green shirt and khaki green shorts, Pearce’s final meeting as a CDD supervisor wasn’t much different than the others he attended from 2012 through July 26. Only this time he came home from the meeting with a handcrafted fishing pole — a parting gesture in honor of his CDD service, one that came a day short of his 90th birthday.

“The fishing pole is the best fresh water pole I ever owned, and I have about 10 poles — nothing like this,” Pearce said. “I was not prepared for such a display. I was ready for a ‘thanks Gil’ and goodbye!”

On behalf of his fellow supervisors and the Lakewood Ranch Inter-District Authority staff, Operations

Director Paul Chetlain presented Pearce with the pole.

Pearce is an avid fisherman and regularly fishes the pond behind his home. He thanked everyone for the gift and warm send-off.

“I just showed up,” Pearce said of his time on the CDD board. “I have much smarter people on the board than me.

“My pet peeves have been lakes and irrigation, but today all is well. At one time, we had fish in our irrigation filters,” he told the crowd.

Pearce has years of pictures to prove it, too. He would bring them and wave them around at both homeowner association and CDD meetings.

“He’s brought the filters with the fish and the animals to the board meetings,” CDD 1 Supervisor Bob Swiatek said. “He would say, ‘Here, smell this.’ He drove (past operations director) Ryan Heise crazy.”

Swiatek, a retired police officer, also appreciates Pearce’s sense of humor. He’s on a 21-person email list who receives daily jokes, lists or humorous stories from Pearce.

“We laugh,” Swiatek said. “Reading his jokes has made my life better.”

Pearce moved to Summerfield in July 2000 from The Inlets and joined the neighborhood committee for Summerfield Glen section of the Summerfield/River Walk Village Association HOA.

The meetings then were at a now-vacant building just north of the playground at Summerfield Community Park. Gil and Liz Pearce wanted to stay involved in their community and make sure it was maintained as homeowners expected.

“We had a thick rule book,” Pearce said. “One car in the garage. No cars in the street. They were tough. We were tough. In those days, everybody was a homeowner. Everybody was nice.”

When their section of Summerfield wanted to convert yard lamps from gas to electric, the gas was turned off, but not everyone completed the conversion. Gil and Liz Pearce drove around looking for unlit yard lamps.

“Every three weeks, we would go around checking gas lamps,” Liz Pearce said. “We did that for almost three years.”

Pearce said the rules have slacked since the “early days,” and he wishes there were fewer rental properties in his neighborhood. But, he still loves his community.

Pearce joined as a CDD supervisor in his 80s, largely because he was already attending the meetings.

In the last six years as a CDD supervisor, Pearce never missed a meeting, nor was he ever late.

“I’m very military,” said Pearce, a 20-year U.S. Army veteran and recipient of two Purple Hearts from injuries sustained in Korea. “It’s impossible to be late.”