Florida is a big state. Maybe not so much for land area, but the population there is no doubt. Still, as big as our population numbers are, the surveying population is tight-knit. Along those lines, I want to reflect on the recent passing of Buddy Bannerman, and in so doing, give a brief glimpse into some of our histories.

I have known Buddy for almost 50 years now. To say that he was a giant in the profession would be an overstatement of the obvious. Buddy and my dad served on the Society’s Board together, but I had met him before this as I was tagging along with my dad at one of the early 70’s conventions. There were for sure other giants of the surveying profession of that era that I met in my youth, such as Dick & Jim Shiskin, Ed Brownell, Bill Keith, Broward Davis, Dave Gibson,George Bolton, Gene Stoner, Lew Kent, Bob Harris, Paul O’Hargan, Bill Thompson, Bob Wigglesworth, and John Gargis, plus so many more. And while some influenced my career more than others, I wanted to reflect on how I came to really know Buddy Bannerman. 

It was 1996, and I had been elected Treasurer of the Society, mostly because of my complaints on how we developed a financial budget. So, this (becoming Treasurer) was kind of a “put up or shut up” move by most of my fellow Board members. One that I ended up relishing, but not for the year that I thought it would be, but for the year in which it morphed into being.

The Society was not doing well financially, which is an understatement. At many Board meetings, we had to “pass the hat” in order to come up with the money needed to keep the Society afloat. It got so bad that Ray Niles (our President) and I had to terminate our Executive Director’s employment, for the most part, because the Society could not afford to pay her. Our Executive Director (ED) was pretty much unilaterally loved by the membership (a definite understatement), so it is pretty much easy to understand that Ray and I got a lot of guff over her termination. One of the folks that had great admiration for that ED was Buddy Bannerman, and he did contact Ray and me to give us an earful (as did many others).

About a week after the departure of our ED, we received a 3”x5” card in the mail from our bank stating that the mailing address of one of our bank accounts had been changed, coincidentally to the home address of our former ED. We checked the account number on the card, but it did not match our checking account. So, I took the card down to the bank, wherein I was informed that we had 12 accounts at that bank in the Society’s name. For all we knew before this, we had one account. So, I started a forensic investigation of our finances, and it quickly became evident that our former ED was stealing money from us. A lot of money. The ironic thing is that she was stealing so much money from us that we could not afford her salary. Yeah, I know, really stupid on her part.

The full investigation took about a year, and I was dealing with the City of Tallahassee Police, but mostly the Secret Service. We compiled an evidence book that was so damning to our ED that she plead guilty and spent time in prison. There was no way that Ray and I were going to let this ED get away with what she thought she could were it not for the fact that she got too greedy.

Again, these were tough times for the Society. We had recently experienced the “train is off the tracks” convention at the Grenelefe Resort, most of which was orchestrated by Buddy Bannerman and Bill Thompson (ask one of us who were on the Board at that time about this), and they were not wrong, but the reason that they were not wrong was not what they thought at the time.

During my forensic investigation, I made a special effort to keep Buddy Bannerman abreast of every step. No one but Buddy and I knew of this. And during this time, I desperately sought and received his input on the investigation issues. I trusted Buddy to keep his involvement in the investigation silent, and he did. I will never forget the respect and guidance that Buddy gave me with what I was doing, and because of this, it was not long before Ray and I were no longer vilified for doing what we had to do in order to keep this Society afloat. So, yes, Buddy Bannerman was a giant of a surveyor that we all can respect, but he also was a giant of a man, and he has my eternal respect and gratitude for that. RIP Buddy!

Oh, in case you wondered, the Society has instilled a series of checks and balances in our finances that preclude a repeat. It is a fact that FSMS is in better shape now in all facets, than at any time in our past.

The Strategic Planning Retreat is one of our most effective vehicles in having members’ input on shaping the future of our profession. It will be something that should not be missed, and you even get CEU credits for attending, so attend!

See you there, March 18 - 19, in Gainesville.