A big SWFL thank you to these community leaders

I’ve always been a big believer that what makes a community great is the people that live there. And that was only reinforced as we learned of the deaths this week of two Southwest Florida icons who did so much to help shape our community.

Longtime Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann, whose political career spanned more than 40 years in public office from Tallahassee to Lee County, died Tuesday morning at his home in Alva. Reporter Bill Smith wrote of his many contributions. Among them were the thousands of acres of Southwest Florida lands and water bodies that are in public protection or ownership today largely due to his efforts.

It’s no wonder that Mann, 80, liked to say his motto was: "Be careful with paradise."

Then a day later, we learned that Myra Daniels, the arts advocate who built the institution known today as Artis—Naples and made Naples a cultural destination, had died at age 96. As reporter Harriet Heithaus tell us, the Chicago-area native parlayed her savvy for donor motivation and her love for the arts into a second career as founder and CEO of the Naples complex.

Her friend, Ursula Pfahl, rightly said, "She put Naples on the map.”

Daniels had another claim to fame: her husband, the late Draper Daniels, owner of a high-power Chicago advertising agency, was the reputed model for the character of Don Draper in the TV series "Mad Men."

And if the pattern of threes takes hold, it should be noted in this space that we lost another beloved humanitarian earlier this month with the death of Alan Korest, 92.

In addition to his involvement in Naples city politics where he served as a council member and vice-mayor, Korest donated his time, talent and philanthropic gifts to numerous organizations, from Moorings Park to Florida Gulf Coast University. As reporter Liz Freeman wrote, Korest and his late wife donated $2.5 million in 2006 to establish the Bower School of Music at Florida Gulf Coast University, which was named after her father.

I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to meet each one of them.

As our community mourns their deaths, we are inspired by what they did in life and for that we will be forever grateful.

And grateful we are to all of you for being a subscriber and making our community what it is.

Now for some other lighter but still “big” news this week that also put Southwest Florida “on the map.”

Reporter Amy Williams and photo journalist Caitlyn Jordan teamed up to explain how biologists with The Conservancy caught the biggest Burmese python ever found in Florida’s Everglades: an almost 18-foot-long, 215-pound female loaded with 122 eggs. The record-breaking invasive snake was said to have been deep in the scrub of Collier County’s Picayune Strand and may have been one of the first “pet” snakes released in the wild.

And then there was the news of a really big bear spotted roaming around Naples this week. Reporter Chad Gillis talked to one resident who caught it all on video.

Jimmy Ritchie was on his way to go bowling with his family when someone yelled out ‘bear.’ The Naples real estate appraiser pulled out his cell phone and started taking video as it lumbered through several gated communities. And the video went viral, so thousands of people were able to see it too.

Be safe out there and feel free to contact me at wfullert@gannett.com.

Best wishes,

Wendy Fullerton Powell

Southwest Florida Region editor/ The News-Press/Naples Daily News

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: A big SWFL thank you to these community leaders