Chandler Otis, Gainesville's 'Grand Poobah' of cycling, remembered for community service

On Easter Sunday in 2015, a resurrection indeed occurred.

Bubba Barron and his crew of hundreds had spent the previous night camping in Langtry, Texas, a short break from their cross-country cycling trip that spanned from Saint Augustine to San Diego, California.

That morning, Barron spoke with an English man crouched on a street corner. He said he planned to exit the bike trip, not yet even at the halfway mark. The man's bicycle wheel broke and shops were 100 miles out.

Barron knew the man for the job.

Trip mechanic Chandler Brooks Otis, dubbed the “Grand Poobah,” replaced the cyclist’s wheel with one he constructed from spare parts. That wheel took him to Washington and still rides on it, seven years later.

The repairs Otis made on that day were typical, both in Gainesville and in his 17 years of journeying with Bubba’s Pampered Pedalers, a group of cyclists who organize tours. Bikes and community were everything to Otis.

Tragically, Otis, 67, was found dead earlier in June by neighbors in his Gainesville home, leaving a hole in the bicyclist community. His cause of death was unknown.

“He was his own person,” Barron said. “He's quirky, he's weird. If you would see him just walk down the street, he might be somebody that you want to cross on the other side of the road. But if you knew him, not only would you not cross the road, you would run up and give him a hug.”

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Last in his family line, valued friend

A Fourth of July baby, Otis was the trunk of his family tree. Neither of his late parents, Arthur and Eileen, had siblings and Otis was an only child, with no children of his own.

Those who knew him said he lived a simple life. He never used his phone or social media and didn't own a computer. He read historical novels, tended to his azalea bushes and garden, listened to the National Public Radio and occasionally watched movies like "The Lion in Winter."

Otis graduated from the University of Florida with a journalism degree in 1978 and worked at several bike shops in town, including Bikes & More. He rode around with a stuffed gator toy in his bike's front basket to show support for his alma mater.

He began his journalism career by delivering Gainesville Sun newspapers on his bike in the 1960s from age 11 to 15. As an adult, the two passions merged. He advocated for pedestrian safety in columns published in the Sun and on the Gainesville Cycling Club website. He also served as a vice-chair for the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization and one of the initial board members of the Gainesville Cycling Club.

His ideas led to the widening of the sidewalk by the 34th Street Publix.

Throughout his yard and garage, more than 100 bikes were stored, said Barron, his long-time friend. He salvaged these for Bikes 4 Vets, serving homeless vets, and children around Christmas time. Otis also volunteered to clean the Hawthorne Trail as a keeper, and he maintained the area surrounding the Share the Road memorial at Depot Park.

“He was 100% for bicycles and making Gainesville a student-safe, bicycle-safe place,” said childhood friend Veronica Franklin.

Franklin and Barron say they considered Otis family.

“He was there when I needed him,” Franklin said. “He was always around the corner someplace. If I couldn’t call him, I could find him because he'd always be somewhere pedaling. He was a great friend.”

Barron said in January he paid a surprise visit to his friend and shared a breakfast. He told Otis he loved him like a brother. In response, Otis twirled his fingers and whooped, in a holler reminiscent of The Three Stooges.

Otis was also cherished by the community. From childhood, he volunteered. Both his mother and father worked at the Friends of the Library, his father at the medical table and his mother in the collectors' corner.

Linda Connell said she recalled Otis scampering about book boxes as a youngster. The last two decades, she said, Otis volunteered at the two sales each year.

“I think his dad made him the helpful person that he was, and I think his mother instilled in him the love of education and the love of reading and literature,” Connell said.

Bikes, Hawaiian shirts and reducing footprint

Connell laughed as she remembered how Otis was unable to volunteer every week because he was riding his bike so often.

Bikes 4 Vets coordinator Diann Dimitri said bikes were Otis' only transportation over the past year.

During the summer months, Otis turned his air conditioning off to reduce his ecological footprint, he once told fellow cyclist Ron Cunningham over a beer.

Otis could be seen around town, sporting a Hawaiian or flannel shirt with his wild hair, white beard, an American flag attached to the bike, whipping in the wind. Barron said Otis scouted out thrift stores and bought Hawaiian shirts.

“He probably owned 200 different Hawaiian shirts, and he was proud of the fact that he never paid more than 50 cents for a shirt,” Barron said.

Much the same can be said for his bikes. Otis configured each bike with scraps and never spent much.

“Chandler was the master of the low-end bike,” Dimitri said.

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On Saturday, June 18, the Gainesville Cycling Club will host a memorial ride in Otis's honor.

Cunningham said Otis was the heart and soul of the club, as an early member and leader, serving as a bike mechanic and barbecuing for the picnics.

Fellow club stalwart Roger Pierce said the ride will follow Otis’s historic route when he led club rides in the 1990s. Riders will gather at 9 a.m. outside of Library West at UF on the Plaza of the Americas. A social gathering will take place afterward at the 4th Avenue Food Park, located at 409 SW 4th Ave. in Gainesville around 10:30 to a.m.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Chandler Otis, Gainesville bike mechanic, volunteer, dies at 67