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A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q S T V W Z
Choose the first letter of a city name to see its Great Floridians.
Vero Beach (East Central)
James Hudson Baker was born in 1866 near Sumpter, South Carolina. He married Ida Mitchell of Savannah, Georgia and they moved to Melbourne in 1896. In 1912 the Bakers moved to Vero Beach where he became a building contractor. He built many commercial and residential buildings in the city, including the Vero Theatre Building and the Farmers Bank Building. James Hudson Baker died in 1951. His Great Floridian plaque is located at the Vero Theatre Building, 2036 14th Avenue, Vero Beach.
Merrill P. Barber, born in 1910, began his career in 1930 as co-owner of one of the first growers supply businesses in Vero Beach. He was a founder and director of the Indian River Citrus Bank, in 1935, and served as president of the bank from 1948 to 1975. From 1947 to 1949 he was Mayor of Vero Beach, and negotiated the contract that brought the Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers) for spring training. As a member of the Florida State Road Board, he brought road improvements to Vero Beach and Indian River County, including the first modern bridge across the Indian River. He was elected to the Florida Senate in 1953, serving two terms. He supported legislation providing polio vaccines to Floridians, supported the state’s community college system and sponsored legislation establishing the Appellate Court System. Merrill P. Barber died in 1985. His Great Floridian plaque is located at the Vero Beach City Hall, 1053 20th Place, Vero Beach.
Alex MacWilliam, Sr., was born May 25, 1891 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His family later immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1919, he decided to move to Vero Beach where he helped build the Riomar subdivision and Riomar Country Club. He was elected to the Vero Beach City Council from 1925 to 1927, then served as mayor of Vero Beach (1927 to 1945 and 1949 to 1951). As mayor he helped establish Vero Beach as the county seat, helped write and pass the city’s first planning and zoning ordinance, and initiated a bond issue to expand the Indian River County School system. While serving as mayor, he also served 13 years as Indian River County’s State Representative and as Justice of the Peace. As State Representative he sponsored legislation to create Florida’s first veteran’s hospital; was responsible for building the Stephen Foster Memorial in White Springs; and supported the building of State Route 60. He also was responsible for the Memorial Island Sanctuary honoring Indian River County’s dead war veterans. Alex MacWilliam died August 13, 1966. His Great Floridian plaque is located at Vero Beach City Hall, 1053 20th Place, Vero Beach.
Garnett L. Radin was born in 1902 in Nebraska. She graduated as a Registered Nurse from the Nebraska Methodist Hospital School of Nursing in Omaha and moved to Vero Beach in 1931. She purchased a small hotel, in 1932, and converted it into Indian River Memorial Hospital. She joined the United States Naval Reserve Nurses Corp during World War II. After the war Radin resumed her position as administrator of Indian River Hospital and supervised construction of a new Vero Beach hospital. She returned to school and received her Master’s degree in hospital administration from Northwestern University. She then served as administrator and consultant for the Shriner’s Hospitals for Crippled Children in the United States and Mexico from 1957 to 1971. In 1972 she returned to Indian River Memorial Hospital as planning coordinator, retiring in 1983. Garnett L. Radin died in 1987. Her Great Floridian plaque is located at Indian River Memorial Hospital, 1000 36th Street, Vero Beach.
Waldo E. Sexton was born March 23, 1885. He came to Vero Beach in 1914, invested in oceanfront property and planted some of the earliest citrus west of the Indian River. He established his own citrus company, the Indian River Products Company, and built a packinghouse, the Oslo Packing Company. The packing house now known as Oslo Citrus Growers Association is the oldest operating packing house on the Florida East Coast. He started the Vero Beach Dairy and supplied milk to Indian River and St. Lucie Counties. With Arthur G. McKee he planted a 400-acre grove, Oslo Hammock, and developed the McKee Jungle Gardens and the Hall of Giants. He constructed the Driftwood Inn, Ocean Grill and Patio Restaurant, all Vero Beach landmarks. Waldo E. Sexton died December 21, 1967. His Great Floridian plaque is located at the Driftwood Inn, 3150 Ocean Drive, Vero Beach.
Sherman N. Smith, Jr., was born June 13, 1914 in Crossville, Tennessee. He graduated from Cumberland University Law School where he received an LL.B. degree in 1935. He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1935 and was arguing before the Florida State Supreme Court by the age of 24. During World War II he served in the United States Navy. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Indian River County in 1940, and held that office for 12 years. He was a member of the Florida House of Representatives from 1952 to 1956, and received the Allen Morris Award for being the outstanding first-term member of the legislature. He was the only person to serve as chief judge of two appellate courts—the Second District Court of Appeal in Lakeland and the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Vero Beach. He practiced law in Florida until shortly before his death, January 7, 1998. His Great Floridian plaque is located at the Court House Executive Center, 2145 14th Avenue, Vero Beach.
Herman Julius Zeuch, born in 1867, was Vero Beach’s first major developer. A native of Iowa, he founded the Indian River Farms Company in 1912, which acquired and drained 48,000 acres of land in what is now Indian River County. The company also provided the land and plat for the Town of Vero, later Vero Beach, and donated the land for Pocahontas Park, which became the home of the city’s community center. Zeuch also pioneered the citrus industry, establishing groves in 1917. He died in 1937. His Great Floridian plaque is located at the Heritage Center, 2140 14th Avenue, Vero Beach.
A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q S T V W Z
Choose the first letter of a city name to see its Great Floridians.