An 'icon': Big John, who lived to serve Volusia County, dies

When the beloved people in Big John’s life died, he would say they passed on to glory.

John, who grew up poor and made a fortune as an outrageous, self-promoting tire and muffler salesman before turning to politics and talk radio, passed on to glory early Sunday. He was 76.

“People throw around terms like ‘icon.’ Big certainly was a Volusia County icon,” said Mark Barker, former Holly Hill police chief and author of the popular blog barkersview.org.

Those who knew him best say his life evolved into one of service to others, giving large chunks of his air time to promote nonprofit organizations, while helping countless people down on their luck with money or simply a sympathetic ear.

“He was a little bit of an enigma. People knew him, but they didn’t know everything about him. He had an oversized personality, yes, but he was very humble,” said Mark Reed, a friend who’s known around Daytona Beach as “Mark of the Beach.”

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“I would do the radio show with him quite a bit and whenever people started praising him, he would interrupt them and say, ‘We can’t talk dirty on the radio,’” Reed said.

A mutual friend introduced John to Kathy Blackman, founder and president of Sophie’s Circle, a nonprofit dog rescue and pet food pantry. He was an animal lover and invited her on his program regularly for about 10 years, but John was also intrigued with the model of Sophie’s Circle, which is run without administrative costs, so 100% of its donations are used directly to benefit animals.

“He was always so generous,” Blackman said. “It was nothing to him to hand me a check for $1,000 or $500, and he was always imploring people on the radio to give.”

Yet his disarming sense of humor wasn’t for everybody.

“He was a polarizing guy. You loved him or you hated him. There was no in between,” Blackman said. “Nobody had a lukewarm opinion about him.”

New Jersey guy graduated from Rutgers, earned degree in 'tireology'

Born as John W. Brower on Nov. 20, 1945, he grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

He went to Rutgers University and majored in political science, graduating “near the bottom of his class,” according to a story in the News-Journal archives. John was proud to have written a 50-page paper analyzing parking problems on the campus, and though he got a D on the paper, it was the impetus behind the construction of two parking garages, he said.

John was hired by Firestone Tire Co., and later took a job at Pan American Tire Co. in Winter Park.

He didn’t go to graduate school, but joked that his career gave him a PhD. in “tireology.”

By 1977 he found himself jobless with his only money a jar of 50-cent pieces. But Daytona Beach businessman Ray Kessler had just closed a muffler shop and invited John to take it over. Big John’s Tire and Muffler eventually expanded to three stores.

His success was in part due to radio and television commercials, including one where he wore a bridesmaid dress, reclining on a sofa with dirty white socks, saying he doesn’t cheat his women.

His ads won awards, including Modern Tire Dealer’s Best Advertiser in the World.

Widely credited as a marketing genius, he changed his name to Big John in 1977. That angered his father, Walter S. Brower, who had moved to Flagler Beach.

Reed said John was not close to his parents, but helped support them financially.

Nearly 40 years ago, Barker was a young police officer in Holly Hill and said he learned someone had attached a string to a pair of shock absorbers inside Big John's store, which he dubbed “The Lubratorium.” The string was run out the window, and Barker decided to watch overnight to see who would attempt to steal the shocks.

It turned out to be an employee.

“I arrested the guy and I called Big,” Barker said. “Rather than be upset, as anyone would have been at someone in their employ stealing from the business, Big was more concerned about why the guy did it. What had befallen his employee and reduced him to this?

“It was that kind of compassion,” Barker said.

Election to Volusia County Council

Politics was in Big John’s blood, and he decided to springboard into local government, running for the Volusia County Council and winning his first term in 1984. He would serve two terms before being defeated in 1992, then reemerged on the council from 1998 to 2002.

He also made an unsuccessful bid for Holly Hill mayor in 2012, finishing third in the primary, with Roy Johnson the ultimate winner.

As a candidate, John assumed the façade of a blue-collar worker, always wearing a blue work shirt with his name stitched on the breast.

Deanie Lowe, a former county councilwoman who first ran the same year as John, recalled meeting him for the first time at a candidates’ forum at what was then known as Daytona Beach Community College.

“He had on his work uniform and I thought, ‘This guy is running for the County Council and he looks like that?’” Lowe said. “But he knew all of the issues and had plans for taking care of the problems and was an outstanding speaker. I thought, ‘OK, if I could, I would vote for him.’”

Once elected, John could antagonize fellow council members as well as some of the people who came before the council.

“One of the funniest things: You would have these high-powered attorneys representing their clients giving a presentation. When he was the chairman, John would say, ‘Wait a minute. Back up. Let me look at your shoes.’ He would make fun of them for wearing shoes with tassels,” Lowe said. “It brought them down to scale.”

On the other hand, she said, John would see a citizen struggling in what might have been their first time speaking in public.

“He would be so kind. He would say, ‘Breathe deeply. You can do this.’ He could make them feel right at home,” she said.

One of John’s passions was transportation policy.

His voice was the loudest advocating for the widening of Nova Road from two to four lanes from Ormond Beach to Port Orange, friends said.

John was part of a small group that steered the $46 million expansion of the Daytona Beach Regional Airport in 1992.

“We would not have Daytona Beach International Airport were it not for Big John,” said Gary Libby, the retired executive director of the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach.

Libby said John also took an interest in supporting the arts, working with him to develop an art-in-public-places program at the airport, and later, in helping to steer the county toward its current ECHO program, a dedicated property tax source for environmental, cultural, historical and outdoors programs.

There were times when, if he didn’t support another council member’s priorities, he would employ nicknames.

Pat Northey, a former West Volusia councilwoman who pushed for the development of bike and walking trails, said initially John was opposed, as most of the trail investment was on the county’s west side and John represented the east side.

He sarcastically dubbed her “Princess Patty” and “The Trail Queen.”

Northey said she laughed and embraced the names, and eventually, when plans for trails were starting to be devised for East Volusia, as well, John became a backer.

“Big always had, whether you agreed with his approach — and he could be sometimes difficult in that approach — he always had the best interest of Volusia County at heart,” Northey said.

Some of his friends, including Lowe, said it was not a good idea to get on John’s bad side. Some of Volusia County’s most prominent business leaders found themselves in his crosshairs, including Bill France Jr., the late NASCAR executive and France family scion.

“(John) tore him apart one day. I said, ‘How can you? They have done so much for this area,'” Lowe said.

Finding his 'Sweetie'

Big John was divorced twice and had an active social life.

Rose Schumacher, who later became executive director of the Holly Hill Chamber of Commerce, met John at a United Way function and, in him, found someone with a similar sense of humor.

“I don’t care who I insult,” Schumacher said. “He told me he had been married two times and he was never getting married again. And I said, ‘I’m sure all of the women in Volusia County thank you for that.’ It took him back for a moment.”

But the two became fast friends.

Schumacher said her husband died in 2001.

“He was the first person to call me that morning and offer whatever help he could,” she said.

Big John: Remembering Sweetie, a life well-spent

Then John and his girlfriend at the time promised to visit Schumacher that night and keep her company.

Schumacher later became his campaign treasurer in 2002, when John lost his last County Council race to Joie Alexander.

At one point, John took an interest in MOAS, the Daytona Beach museum, Libby said.

“I believe he was single then, and he saw the museum as a place to meet people and socialize. He liked the ladies. … He was never crude in any way. Women tended to like him. They sensed that he respected them and was interested in them.”

In 2003, John met the person he called his “Sweetie,” Barbara Kinkade. Though they never married, they lived together in John’s “Big House” in Holly Hill, where she helped him create a pond stocked with koi and a garden comprised of native Florida plants that was later certified as a wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation and recognized by the University of Florida and City of Holly Hill.

Raised Catholic and once an altar boy, John later lived agnostically, Reed said. But in a piece he wrote for The News-Journal following Sweetie’s death on Oct. 14, 2021, John wrote: “I really miss my Sweetie, who had a great belief in God and succeeded in her mission to educate me about Him.”

Giving a radio station to B-CU

During his tenure on the County Council, John hosted a Saturday morning radio program discussing local issues and taking calls from listeners.

Shortly after his 2002 defeat, Doug Wilhite, owner of WELE-1380 AM, hired John to host a two-hour, afternoon radio show.

In 2010, Wings Communications — Wilhite's company — went into bankruptcy following his arrest in 2009 on charges he engaged in sexual activity with a minor. Though he was acquitted, Wilhite lost control of the radio station.

John took over the marketing of WELE under his Goliath Radio LLC.

His show attracted headlines in 2007 when he said of Dwayne Taylor, a Black Daytona Beach mayoral candidate: “The higher the monkey climbs, the better you can see its ass. And we’d really see Dwayne’s butt if he got to be the mayor.”

John and Wilhite denied the comment was racist, though Wilhite acknowledged it was “in poor taste.”

The NAACP and other organizations called for an apology. He met with Bethune-Cookman University President Trudie Kibbe Reed and alumnus Harry Burney to learn more about why the metaphor was offensive.

John later said: "While I do not apologize for my views of the mayoral candidate, I have now been enlightened and seek to reconcile with all African-Americans who may have been offended by my remarks.”

He also donated airtime to B-CU students on WELE. And in 2013, he donated the station and all of its equipment, worth an estimated $1 million, to Bethune-Cookman.

John continued his radio show until recently, when he had fallen ill from congestive heart failure and kidney failure.

Barker, who said John gave him a regular timeslot, appreciated his forum.

“It was hyperlocal. If a guest strayed into state politics, he was very quick to right them and keep it hyperlocal,” Barker said. “It was an informational, inspirational forum.”

He kept showing up at governmental meetings, saying that was the only way he could remain informed.

He served on a number of nonprofit boards, including Serenity House.

And Reed said John was a familiar face in county courtrooms.

“He would go to many first appearances to make sure someone was getting a fair shake,” Reed said. “Sometimes he would help people (bond) out on first appearance and offer them a job.”

Friends shared endless stories about John as someone who adopted the persona of a common man who was successful in making people without a voice feel heard.

“Without a doubt, this man gave so much back to the community that nobody ever knew about,” Schumacher said. “One woman told me he bought her a refrigerator. Another woman said he paid for her rent. He was always doing something for someone. He grew up poor, and I used to tease him about it: It’s almost like he was apologizing for being rich.”

A celebration of Big John's life will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 21, at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, 201 University Blvd., Daytona Beach.

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia councilman, radio icon Big John, remembered for tire ads, dies