R: I never got to know Al very well. I got to know him better after I came back and
 was over in administration, because he was donating things to the University.

P: There was no such thing as a junior college in Alachua County at this time, the
 1950s, was there? That had not yet been organized, although the program begins
 in 1955.

R: I am trying to remember when the first college has started to open.

P: Later.

R: I think the program was finally approved by the legislature, 1954-1955, and they
 began to allocate dollars as they could.

P: Now, you leave the University and you return to Fort Myers for the second time,
 upon the invitation of Mr. Fagan.

R: Mr. Harry Fagan, without a doubt, the premier citizen of Fort Myers and Lee
 County.

P: Tell me a little bit about him since his name comes into the record here.

R: He was president of the First National Bank in Fort Myers, and probably, when it
 came to community service and support of good things in the community, he was
 without a doubt number one. The bank, of course, was locally owned in those days,
 and was very successful, and Harry felt a major obligation to give things back. I will
 give you a couple of examples.

 When we were trying to bring the Pittsburgh Pirates here, the first time I was here,
 Mr. Rickey said, "Well, I have been down, I have seen what you are going to do with
 the field, everything is fine, but I just do not think Fort Myers is big enough to give
 us any kind of a gate. The receipts are a small part of our budget, but they help."
 He said, "If you can sell $30,000 worth of tickets for the year, we will come." Well,
 that does not sound like much today, but that was a lot of seats in those days. So
 we began a campaign to sell season tickets. I think the season tickets were eight or
 nine or ten practice games. It might have been $30 or something like that. It was
 not much. And we launched this campaign, but before we started I went to see Mr.
 Fagan. I said, "Mr. Fagan, this is what Mr. Rickey has asked that we do." I said, "I
 think we can do it, but I am not sure." He said, "Well, you go ahead, and what you
 cannot sell, the bank will buy." When we needed a new hospital, the bank led the
 campaign with a major gift. [Also with] the United Way, and the community concert
 series, whatever, the bank was first.

P: As a result of Fagan's influence.

R: As a result of Fagan's personal influence.

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