R: No. But I gave him a house on almost nothing down, [and] built him an office to
 his requirements [with] minimum rent.

P: I can see that it was a challenge. That was interesting.

R: Yes. It really was.

P: Did the developers make money out of Lehigh?

R: Oh, yes. In the end, Sam, they went public and were bought out and the economy
 turned and they did not make it. Jerry Gould, at one time, was immensely wealthy,
 but he wound up leaving Lehigh with very little. Now, he went on and did other
 things, but they were very rich for a while. It was unfortunate that they allowed
 themselves to be bought out by a much bigger outfit, and that went sour.

 No, as I say, now they have 40,000 people living out there in Lehigh. They are just
 getting their own high school under construction. They have had a K-6 school and
 a middle school. Now they are getting their own high school.

P: Was this the last job you had in this area of Florida?

R: Yes. Then, what happened was that President Reitz's office called the bank to talk
 to me.

P: This is the second invitation?

R: This is now the end of 1964, I guess. Of course, they tell him I am not at the bank,
 I am up there. I think that was a jolt to Dr. Reitz. I think he talked to Mr. Fagan,
 "Did something go wrong?" And Mr. Fagan said, "No, nothing went wrong, just Alan
 went out there." So then he called me, and we talked, so I came up.

P: This is Reitz talking to you now?

R: Yes, so I went up to Gainesville and we had a good visit.

P: What did he say he wanted?

R: He told me that the job he had originally offered me in 1962 had become open again
 because Judge Crosby had just been named president of the new University of West
 Florida, and would I be willing to talk? I say yes I would, because while that was
 quite an experience, I realized that was really not what I wanted to do.

P: Even though Gould had promised you a lot of money?

R: What he said was, "Certainly, you will make more money with us, you will get much
 more rapid increases, and who knows where Lehigh Acres really goes, and what kind
 of jobs might be opened up here. We might decide we need a city manager. We

 -53 -