Sam Gibbons, congressman and ' true American hero'

[one...two...tree 2,762]

TAMPA — Sam Gibbons, a World War II hero who in 44 years as a legislator left a lasting imprint on social programs, world trade, health care and a raft of improvements for the Tampa Bay area, died early Wednesday, his family said.

He was 92.

Mr. Gibbons was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1952, the Florida Senate in 1958 and to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1962. Before his retirement from Congress, he served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Through five decades, Mr. Gibbons never lost an election.

His sweeping resume includes expanding Tampa's physical boundaries; sponsoring the bill that started the University of South Florida; helping to start the Southwest Florida Water Management District; and lining up votes for the country's first Head Start program.

Later, Mr. Gibbons inadvertently prompted a best-selling book: Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation, about World War II veterans.

"Sam was a seminal inspiration for my writing the book," said Brokaw, who met Mr. Gibbons in a French cafe around the 40th anniversary of the D-day invasion. Brokaw said he was mesmerized by the story Mr. Gibbons told that day, and how those wartime experiences might have shaped his career.

Those who knew Mr. Gibbons best say he went into politics not to win wars, but to make them unnecessary.

"The carnage and the stupidity of trying to make decisions through war was something he wanted to put a stop to," said Clifford Gibbons, his son.

He took nuanced positions over his career. Mr. Gibbons voted for President Lyndon Johnson's anti-poverty program and against school busing; supported the Vietnam War at first and then regretted it; backed rights for women under Roe vs. Wade and bucked protectionist trade policies advocated by labor unions.

"He has been, in my opinion, one of the most outstanding congressmen from Florida we've had," said former Gov. Reubin Askew. "The lobbyists couldn't get to him. You couldn't persuade him to go against his own conscience."

A Democrat, Mr. Gibbons won over colleagues on both sides of the aisle with passion, grit and a self-effacing charm that extended to poking fun at his own protruding ears.

"People will forget your face," he told an audience at the John F. Germany Public Library in July. "They'll forget your name. But they won't forget these ears."

Nor did a string of presidents over 34 years forget Mr. Gibbons' ability to get votes. Mr. Gibbons ran John F. Kennedy's Florida presidential campaign in 1960 and was elected to the U.S. House two years later.

"JFK had him over to the White House and said, 'All right, I owe you,' " said Clifford Gibbons, who has worked as a lobbyist and lawyer in Washington, D.C. "Sam said, 'Okay, I want to start the Head Start program.' "

President Johnson used Mr. Gibbons as a point man for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. "LBJ said, 'If you can talk southern and vote northern, that's really what we need,' " his son said.

Legislators both liked and feared him.

"If you had something that was really important to you, you had better try to get Sam Gibbons on your side because you didn't want him opposing you," said Rep. C.W. Bill Young R-Indian Shores.

Despite their political differences, they worked together more than they opposed each other, Young said. They teamed, for instance, to secure funding for the Sam M. Gibbons U.S. Courthouse in downtown Tampa.

To the northeast, the sprawling campus of the University of South Florida represents Mr. Gibbons' most striking achievement in the Tampa Bay area.

"His legacy is the University of South Florida," said former USF president and state education commissioner Betty Castor. "I know he had a great career in Congress, but he was the person who made USF happen."

Mr. Gibbons pushed the authorization bill for USF through the Legislature in 1956, when he was just a skinny young state representative from Tampa. At the time, Florida had no public university south of Gainesville.

Sam Melville Gibbons was born Jan. 20, 1920, in Tampa, a lawyer's son. He went to the University of Florida in 1938 but left before his senior year to join the Army. He was a 24-year-old captain in the 101st Airborne Division on June 6, 1944, the first day of the Allied invasion of France.

Mr. Gibbons jumped out of a C-47 the night before the invasion. He landed in a field, unsure of where he might find Americans or stumble upon German soldiers. He and other paratroopers used small metal "clickers" to find each other.

One click was code for, "Here I am." Two clicks in reply meant, "We're here, too."

He left the service after five years, having earned a Bronze Star and four battle stars.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/sam-gibbons-congressman-and-true-american-hero-dies-at-age-92/1255710

Edited October 11, 2012 by Commie Appeaser

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Yes, a great man who truly wanted to make the world better. His eyes had seen the darkest parts of human beings and he wanted none of it for his children and grandchildren. Imagine that, seems like a lot of WW2 veterans I had the privilege to know.

What a shame his legacy is "war heroes" like John Kerry, wounded in the @ss running away when he tossed a grenade into a nest of enemy...rice; "community organizers" who never took any kind of personal risk and never created a single job, fake Native Americans, and people who want to promote and defend the horribly inhumane practice of human trafficking and smuggling for profit, calculated dependency of their fellow man on handouts rather than requiring education for them to be independent, the announcement that the food stamp program has been "improved" by adding people to the rolls, rather than improved by eliminating the need for food stamps.

Yes, another piece of America is gone.