‘Mr. Estero,’ Don Eslick, leaves legacy of devotion to community

Community organizer and strategist Don Eslick, whose get-it-done attitude, is remembered for bringing the Estero community together to create "A Village with a Vision" -- where residents have an active and on-going say in steering their community and their village government.

A Funeral Mass is at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Leo The Great Catholic church, 28290 Beaumont Road Bonita Springs. Eslick is survived by his wife, Suzie Eslick.

"He was an unassuming man, but he had a way of connecting people and inspiring people to work for the cause," said Marilyn Edwards, who serves as the village communications specialist. "That's what he did by being the founding chairman of the Estero Council of Community Leaders, he would talk to them and find out what their talents were and and put in the right direction."

Estero's incorporation was a defensive measure that gained traction after Bonita Springs developed a voracious appetite for annexing commercial and residential property in unincorporated Lee County. As the residents came together to support the cause, incorporation recognized the community's right to set its own standards for the look, feel and pride of the community.

Eslick died March 16 at 88.

Obituary: Donald F. “Don” Eslick

A native of Chicago, he served with the Air Force, he earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Purdue, and a masters in business administration from the University of Chicago. He completed post-graduate work in the doctoral program at the University of Illinois. He went on to a career that included stints as assistant state superintendent of Illinois public schools, assistant state comptroller for the state of Illinois and was that state's legislative research director, eventually creating a company Public Finance Associates that consulted with local governments.

Don Eslick a leader among leaders

After moving to Southwest Florida, Eslick helped organize the Estero Council of Community Leaders.

Then part of unincorporated Lee County, Estero was a unique community in which a significant part of its population lived in gated communities. The walls were never broken, but leaders of communities behind the walls joined in a common mission -- maintaining Estero's independence from Bonita Springs' quest for more territory.

"Incorporation was definitely a defensive move," said former Estero Mayor Nick Batos, who worked with Eslick as Bonita Springs, as an incorporated city, began to annex property, with a goal of collecting tax money by annexing property up and down U.S. 41, and snaking into grounds of the Hyatt hotel.

"They went from home to home and started getting little pieces, they got enough to get a contiguous piece to go into the Hyatt," Batos said. "They got 60 or 70 homes to get from (Bonita's) border line to the Hyatt."

Annexation is a process by which unincorporated areas that are ruled by the Board of Count Commissioners declare their independence and become incorporated communities with the right to set their own policies. In 2014, Estero residents voted to reorganize as the the sixth incorporated community in Lee County.

Within a couple of years, Estero incorporated. A referendum vote, driven by Batos, Eslick and others, resulted in more than 85% of the voters supporting incorporation, many of them with the intention of stopping the expansion plans of Bonita's then-mayor Ben Nelson.

"Don Eslick was a smart, smart man; he was really into the tactical issues here," Nelson said in a recent interview. "Don and I kind of went toe-to-toe on that. Before coming to the card table, he made sure he had all the cards. He was amazing really, he caused everyone who was around him to step it up a notch."

Nelson recalled how Eslick led the charge to stop a plan that would have meant construction of a massive interchange at Coconut Point between Interstate 75 and U.S. 41. Eslick made it his mission to get the plans scrapped.

"It's infuriating because he was so good at what he did; it was like a magic trick," Nelson said.

Eslick worked the ECCL to keep residents informed directly, with representatives, usually the board leaders of each of the gated communities, carrying the message home.

"Don was so instrumental in getting Estero incorporated, he was the driving force there," said former Mayor Katy Errington. "He played a big, big role in forming that vision."

Without Eslick, would Estero merge with Bonita Springs?

Eslick and others turned a vision of what Estero could become into reality.

"Would Estero be what it is today without Don Eslick? I really don't think so," Errington said, adding that incorporation of the village "had to happen (if not) it would be different for all of us. I could be living in (what would be) part of Bonita Springs today."

It took some effort to jumpstart Estero residents into seeking an incorporated community with control of its own affairs. Getting the message behind the walls took some time, but Eslick waved his cultivated email list of thousands of names, activating a large section of the community in a flash.

"We were able to reach those people, we were able to get into the gated communities. There were three of us, it was the first anybody had been in all those communities," said Howard Levitan, who with Eslick and Batos met with residents about what incorporation would mean for Estero.

"We were ready for it; the county was really taking advantage of us. They will say that isn't true that they built all the infrastructure, but the fact was they were taking taxes from Estero," Levitan said.

Eslick's ability to put the right people into the right spots in the incorporation effort was an advantage that Levitan said helped Estero run its own affairs.

"Don's greatest skill was his ability to get people to do stuff, he was a great motivator and that's what I liked about him -- a lot," Levitan said. "He ... didn't suffer fools much, he demanded a lot and most people delivered for him."

In October 2012, the Estero Parkway Bridge was renamed for Eslick. Six years later, his name was removed and the bridge renamed the Estero Community Bridge at the request of Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass, who never mentioned Eslick by name when he proposed changing the name.

More:Lee County commission’s actions are legal in Eslick bridge name matter | Pendergrass

More:Lee Commissioner Frank Mann: Taking Don Eslick's name off of bridge a mistake

'Mr. Estero' Don Eslick used persuasion to carry the day

"Candidly, without him, the village and the vision that was created was one that was collective. His leadership style was that he had the ability to persuade people and make things happen," said Jim Gilmartin, who became communications chair of the ECCL at Eslick's request. He later eased into the presidency of the group, under the renamed Engaged Estero as a way of broadening its impact.

"I never knew a man who put in as many hours into what he was doing as when he was chairman of the ECCL" he said. "He touched the lives of a lot of people, just by being generous with himself."

Those who worked on bettering the community aren't shy with their proclamations.

"He was my hero; he should have been everyone in the community's hero. He inspired people to work to the betterment of our community," said Edwards, the village communications specialist. "He was different, it didn't appear that he had an ego, he just worked very hard to protect the environment, to protect the quality of life."

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Don Eslick credited by friends for Estero's emergence in Lee County