POSTSCRIPT: David Pattillo saw his dream

David Pattillo had a dream.

Back in the early 1990s, as everyone else talked about Inverness becoming a ghost town with the widening of State Road 44 and U.S. 41, Dave dreamed of a vital downtown.

But he didn't just dream it. He got his hands dirty rebuilding the city's glory days one brick at a time.

David Pattillo, the man who loved Inverness, died April 5. He was 78.

"He was first a visionary," said Pati Smith, supervisor of parks and recreation for the City of Inverness.

"When everyone was talking about the widening of 44 and 41, he was the first one to put together the downtown revitalization project and get the community involved," she said.

He envisioned a place where people could park their cars and walk around, with interesting shops and rest areas and flowers and trees. A destination place. A place where residents could point out to visitors and be proud.

A place like Inverness is today.

He was a tall man, well over six feet, with a heart like a lamb, said former Inverness mayor Joyce Rogers.

"He could get you to do things," she said. He got her to run for mayor and he got her to sweep the sidewalks on Main Street.

"Only for Dave," Rogers said.

Then there was what Rogers calls Dave's "brilliant but infamous" brick program.

In 1994, Dave had an idea to build a 900-square-foot plaza across from the old Chamber of Commerce building using bricks that people could purchase for $5 each ? and that he would personally engrave with people's names.

He didn't have any idea how popular his idea would be, Rogers said.

More than 2,000 bricks later and unable to keep up with the workload, the people from LaPerle Memorials stepped in to help sandblast the names. In 1998, the bricks were used to create a winding path at the end of Main Street.

"He was an unusual man and so intelligent ? borderline genius ? but he could make anyone understand what he was trying to say," Rogers said. "I loved the way he was able to laugh at himself."

Born in Springfield, Mo., Dave spent his early years in Southern California. He met Peggy, his wife of 59 years, while he attended Santa Ana College and she was a high school senior.

He was an ad man, running award-winning advertising agencies in Washington state and then in Palm Beach. He wrote music for commercials and often put his children, David, Suzanne and Melissa, in his ads. They moved to Palm Beach in 1970.

Creative and good with his hands, Dave always had a project going in his workshop. He built a rowboat from scratch and a smaller replica for his grandson, Owen, and an even smaller one for granddaughter Grace.

The last thing he built was a tree house in his Inverness back yard ? built while he used a walker and cane. He had great determination and didn't let setbacks stop him from doing something, especially something for someone else.

"He loved animals and was always rescuing them and bringing them home," said son David. "He tended to hire guys who needed a break. His life was very purpose driven. He wanted to go home at night and feel that he had a purposeful, meaningful life."

David said from his father he learned humility and how to be a good dad.

"He set such a wonderful example," he said. "I remember when I was a little kid and going to the lumber yard or something. He'd say, 'We're going on an adventure.'

"My dad had a great enthusiasm about mundane things and he made them fun for me as a kid. There was never a dull moment with him," he said.

Peggy Pattillo remembers how her husband cared for others and cared about his community. He wasn't satisfied to let someone else take care of something that needed doing. He was passionate about universal health care.

With a well-stocked Rolodex, Dave didn't hesitate to use it, Mrs. Pattillo said. "Richard Branson, Bill Clinton, he never had trouble getting through," she said. "He went to people who he thought could help with things. He had ideas and he carried them through."

The Pattillos came to Inverness in 1990, moving into Dave's mother's house in the Highlands. As he made Inverness his home, the Old Courthouse intrigued him, his son said, also the name of the town.

He loved history and the whole Scottish heritage of Inverness. One of his ideas was to give the town a more Scottish flavor.

"He loved it when the Scottish soccer team came here," Mrs. Pattillo said.

After he retired from his advertising career, he made volunteering a career. With an office on the first floor of the Masonic Building, he kept his design plans for a revitalized Inverness on his wall.

"He'd go to all the service club meetings and take his designs and graphics and tell them what the potential was," Mrs. Pattillo said.

He built brick planters and planted loquat trees in them, recalled Cecil Everett, owner of Coach's Pub.

Everett also recalled seeing Dave at all hours of the day or night, dragging hoses around town watering plants. He built signs and picked up trash. Of everything Dave built himself, only the Inverness sign still stands.

"The city tore everything else (he did) down," Everett said.

June 11, 1993, was proclaimed David Pattillo Day. In 1994, Dave and his wife were named Chronicle Citizens of the Year.

He was a Bucs fan. He loved watching the History Channel while drinking a glass of wine. He published several short stories, wrote freelance articles for the Chronicle, researched and wrote "Tocobaga ? The Lost Civilization," a chronicle of Florida's Spanish colonial history.

"He was a city-minded guy, a great guy, and nothing he did was ever for money," Everett said.

"He was a folk hero," Mrs. Pattillo said. He inspired people. Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops and local students all came downtown to pull weeds alongside Dave Pattillo.

"He was a volunteer in every sense of the word," Pati Smith said. "He was just a neat man."

A memorial service for David Pattillo will be at 5:30 p.m. today at the cul-de-sac at the end of Main Street, downtown Inverness.