‘The Grandson’ made his mark on Manatee agriculture

MANATEE Walter Lane Preston didn’t mind when people would whisper about him, “He’s the grandson of the man with the exact same name who started Manatee Fruit Co. in west Bradenton in 1892.”

The second Mr. Walter Lane Preston, the “Grandson,” was too humble to tell the whisperers that he had left his own mark on the remarkable Manatee County family agricultural business — and it was no small one, his family said.

Mr. Preston, who was born on Christmas Day 1928, died Sunday at age 87 after suffering a major stroke three weeks ago.

“My dad didn’t really like the limelight,” Whiting Preston, Mr. Preston’s son and a fourth-generation Manatee Fruit Co. leader, said Tuesday. “He was always a very humble kind of person. He treated everyone the same. He was a tough guy but also very compassionate. He helped a lot of people out by either giving them a job or money. He did it on his own and did it quietly. He was the kind of person who never rang his own bell.”

For three generations, Manatee Fruit Co. grew and sold vegetable and citrus, but it was the grandson of the founder who took the company into the flower business, creating what is now one of the largest floral production companies in the United States, Whiting Preston said.

“We now ship flowers throughout the United States and Canada, and that’s a credit to Dad,” Preston said. “He pioneered a wide variety of crops. He developed several varieties of gladiolus and worked on carnations, as well. He brought in chrysanthemums, poinsettias, potted plants and foliage.”

It was “The Grandson” who also realized the importance of branding.

Mr. Preston labeled all the flowers he sent with a “Manatee” brand, which promised quality and integrity and, as the years went on, enabled the company to charge more for its products, Whiting Preston said.

“The name was Manatee Fruit Co. but the brand was ‘Manatee’ and he used that brand to promote flowers,” he said. “The retail consumers didn’t know the brand, but all the wholesalers knew it.”

During Tuesday's Manatee County Commission meeting, Commissioner Carol Whitmore paid respects to Mr. Preston.

"That's a big loss to our community," she said at the dais. "He's one of the founding farmers in this area."

Kenny Hawkins, a farm manager who worked with Mr. Preston for 36 years, called Mr. Preston “the most honest and sincere man I have ever met in my life.”

“He never promised anything that did not become a reality,” Hawkins said Tuesday.

Al Simpkus, a friend and neighbor who spent a lot of time the past several years with Mr. Preston, said of the late farmer, “Walter took me around the farm and talked about his business and the community. He had a great business mind, and he cared about the people around him.”

Mr. Preston loved the outdoors, which made farming the perfect profession for him, his family said.

“Dad did not like sitting in an office,” Whiting Preston said. “He considered his work as out in the field, kind of directing people and working on the production side. He always loved being outside.”

Mr. Preston was a skilled golfer and big hitter off the tee, something that could have been nurtured on the family farm land in west Bradenton, which measured roughly 3,000 acres in the 1950s, making the family among the largest private landowners in the county.

Land development has reduced the family’s farm land to about 2,000 acres now, Whiting Preston said.

Mr. Preston met Flavia Florez in Tampa where they went to different high schools. He called her “the love of my life” and married her in 1951. Mrs. Preston died in July 2012. They were married 61 years.

“I believe the day Mom died was the saddest day in my father’s life,” Whiting Preston said.

“They had a wonderful relationship,” he added. “They complemented each other. She was very supportive of my father and helped him in business. When my father did travel, she went with him. My mother was a very intelligent lady. I think she was able to give my father a lot of incredibly good advice.”

When Mrs. Preston got sick, Mr. Preston devoted the rest of his life to caring for her, Whiting Preston said.

“He took his vows seriously,” their son added.

Mr. Preston’s visitation will be held 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, at Griffith Cline Funeral Home, 720 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Oct. 14, also at Griffith Cline Funeral Home.

This story was originally published October 11, 2016 at 5:32 PM with the headline "‘The Grandson’ made his mark on Manatee agriculture."