James Gordon, a Rubonia leader, dies at 95

RUBONIA -- A staple in the Rubonia community -- sometimes referred to as the community's mayor -- has died.

James Gordon, who was the owner of Gordon's Service & Garage on Bayshore Road for more than 50 years, passed away Wednesday. He was 95.

"My dad was a very strong, kind, generous person, very giving," said Beverly Gordon Bryant, his daughter. "He had a lot of integrity. He was very respectful. He

was just one of the greatest fathers that you could ever have. He was always there for us. He took very good care of us."

Mr. Gordon, who will be buried at the Rubonia cemetery, is survived by three children, one stepson, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

"I think that his legacy will live on," Bryant said. "He left a great legacy in the community and left a great legacy with his children, grandchildren and his one great-grandchild. ... He was a pillar in the community because he did a lot for the Rubonia community."

Until the day he died, Mr. Gordon was still interested in his family, said Mary Brown, Rubonia Community Association chairwoman.

"He was a family man," Brown said. "He believed in family and he took care of his family."

For Mr. Gordon, who moved to Rubonia in 1939, family extended beyond his blood family. Brown fondly remembers the Gordons helping her mother with anything that she was trying to do and accomplish.

"He was the kind of person that you could to talk to and our conversation was more or less all the time about family and how the members of the family were doing," she said. "He was involved in almost everything that was going on in Rubonia."

On Wednesday morning, Derrick Randall, who grew up in Rubonia, shared the news of Mr. Gordon's passing on his Facebook page.

"Rubonia was blessed to have and will forever treasure his contributions to the foundation and solidification of a small community with a big heart," Randall said in the post. "In reflection, a parallel to the community's unofficial yet known leader for over seven decades. The community of Rubonia is better because Mr. Gordon called it home."

As a young boy, Randall remembers walking up to Mr. Gordon's store to get a soda from him, which Mr. Gordon would give to them for free because it was so hot outside.

"He was so down to Earth," Randall said, adding that Mr. Gordon had a "quirky sense of humor."

When Mr. Gordon opened the shop, Rubonia opened and when it closed, the community closed, Randall said.

"It's a great, great loss to the community of Rubonia," Randall said. "He meant a lot to our community. Mr. James was a very inspirational and impactful person in our community, and myself and the community of Rubonia are going to miss him greatly."

Mr. Gordon always stressed the importance of working with people outside of the community, Randall said.

"He was my mayor as a citizen of Rubonia," Randall said. "Someone that led us in the right direction. Mr. James was so instrumental in Rubonia being a community today, because of him. If it wasn't for him, the community of Rubonia wouldn't be in existence."

As a deacon at the St. Johns First Baptist Institution of Church in Palmetto, Mr. Gordon epitomized what a deacon should be all about, said Kenneth Mays, a deacon at the church.

"He will be dearly, dearly missed by the church," Mays said. "It's hard to put into words the things that he meant to the church because a lot of the things were intangible. ... He was quiet in his actions but the things he did was very impactful. It's so difficult knowing he won't be there."

As an institution in the Rubonia community, Rubonia lost a historian with Mr. Gordon's death, Brown said.

"He was a historian because he would always take you back and bring you forward to what was going on," Brown said.

"He is one of the leaders that will be missed. You could always go back and reminisce with him."

From Mr. Gordon, Brown learned there is always going to be change and people are not always going to agree with you, which she said she still carries in her role as chairwoman of the Rubonia Community Association.

"You always need somebody to take a lead and I think that's what he did in Rubonia," she said.

In most memories from Randall's childhood, Mr. James, as he called him, is in it, Randall said.

"You can't prepare for the loss of a great leader," he said. "I could never walk in his shoes, but if I can walk in the shadow he's left."

The viewing for Mr. Gordon will be from 5-8 p.m. Friday at St. Johns First Baptist Institution of Church, 1108 29th St. E., Palmetto. The service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the church.  

Claire Aronson, Manatee County reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024. Follow her on Twitter @Claire_Aronson.

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 11:20 PM with the headline "James Gordon, a Rubonia leader, dies at 95 ."