When the railroad trestle was torn down,
Dick asked one of the railway workers to
6 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE November/December 2019
save one of the lanterns
that were used at the
Boca Grande Railroad Bridge.
“Those were very scarce and hard to get.”
He put the light on his 44-foot houseboat
that he kept docked at Gasparilla Marina
for many years.
FUN FACTS ABOUT DICK BROWN:
• He won the Key West Hemingway beard and look-alike contest at
Sloppy Joe’s during the 1990s.
• He caught a 390-pound shark while fi shing near New Pass in Sarasota,
fi ghting the monster for almost four hours. The fi sh was nearly twice
the size of its captor.
• He met Richard Nixon, before he was president, in Boca Grande.
• He owned a fi shing guide charter business for 8 years called “Gasparilla
Charters” that departed from Gasparilla Marina in Placida.
• Dick coached the Venice Baseball team for 27 years. He led the team to
the state fi nals in 1955.
Left: Gerri, Steve and Dick Brown. Middle: At the Key West Hemingway beard and look-alike contest. Dick taking a break from
fi shing with a friend in Placida.
54 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE November/December 2019