Coming to Paradise

Kellie Burns

When I was offered a job here in 1994, I had no idea where Fort Myers was, only that it was somewhere on Florida's west coast.

It was culture shock: not many people under the age of 30 (I was 28) and no place to eat after 9 p.m. I thought this would just be a pit stop in my race to a bigger television market, but before long I found myself hooked on the beaches, the sunsets and the Midwestern ways.

My parents planned to retire to the other coast, but after many visits-and some big phone bills-they moved here. It's almost 12 years later, and now I split my time between Southwest Florida and Chicago, where my husband, Ed, whom I married on Sanibel Island two years ago, lives and works. But this is home. I know it every time I step off the plane and feel the first blast of humidity, when I look through the terminal windows and see palm trees lining the road, and when the little old man in front of me offers to help carry my luggage.

Denise Cobb

Twelve years ago, I wanted to find an escape from winters in Washington, D.C., and my husband, Brian, wanted an escape from my "weather disorder."

On our first try at finding a place in Florida, we looked where we had family. My mother lived in Deland: not near the beach. My brother had moved to Orlando: way too congested. An aunt lived outside Jacksonville: too far north. On our second trip, we looked at Destin, Hutchinson Island, Stuart, Fort Lauderdale, Sarasota, Palm Beach, Clearwater and Fisher Island. Nothing struck our fancy. And then fate stepped in when, on a Caribbean cruise, we met two couples from Naples. One couple, Mary Anne and Tom Spann, who were on their honeymoon, lived full-time in Port Royal, and told us over and over that Naples was paradise.

Back in D.C., fate stepped in again when our daughter's high school fund raiser auctioned a week's stay in a condominium-in Naples! We arrived and when we saw Fifth Avenue South in downtown Naples, we were struck with the feeling that this was a real community and knew our journey had ended. We saw our wonderful friends and bought our first condominium that very week. Like most of us who live here, we began by spending a couple of months, then bought a bigger place and spent a little more time here, then another place. Pretty soon we were full-time residents. Paradise found. And more than 10 years later, Tom and Mary Anne are still two of our closest friends.

Garrett Richter

In 1969 I began my banking career as a janitor at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, Pa., a career interrupted when I entered the Army later that year. After serving on a LRRP team with the 75th Ranger Company in Vietnam, I returned to Pittsburgh. In February 1987, Mellon Bank asked if I wanted to be transferred to Naples to start up Mellon Financial Services Corporation. Agreeing to consider it, I went home to find Naples on a map.

Later that week, Mellon gave me two plane tickets so my wife, Diana, and I could visit. We dropped our three young kids off at Grandma's with their usual winter colds and runny noses. As I was going down the escalator at the Southwest Regional Airport, I noticed a black wall telephone. When I reached the ground floor, I went to it, dialed Mellon and told them, "I accept."

Two years later, Gary Tice and I sold stock for $6 a share to start First National Bank of Naples. It became the largest commercial bank headquartered in Florida and has recently become Fifth Third Bank.

Mary Susan Clinton

My husband, J.D., has had an alternate residence here since the 1980s. Deciding that this special niche of the world was not just for holidays, I decided to relocate my company, Gallien Global Vision, here, moving from Memphis, Tenn., in the summer of 1993. Although Naples was very tranquil then, I believe the city has sustained its uniqueness with development. I see parallels in Naples and my children: I think every year is the best, but the next year is even more enhanced!

Frank Haskell

When I retired as president of Moore Business Systems in Dallas and moved to Fort Myers in 1988, Florida's west coast was a well-kept secret. Although no longer a secret, the area still offers the same wonderful life I visualized 17 years ago. I'm from Boston, and I've been a Red Sox fan all of my life-in the sixth grade, when I was quarantined with scarlet fever, Ted Williams answered a letter I wrote to him. When the City of Palms Park opened for Red Sox spring training in 1993, I was there, running the message board and watching the game from the booth. I asked John Harrington, who owned the team then, if some of his players could participate in a golf tournament to benefit Lee Memorial's Children's Hospital. Today the Boston Red Sox Celebrity Classic is the area's largest charity sporting event, raising more than $500,000 this year.

Elliott H. Singer

We were first invited down to Naples by some Nashville friends for a weekend, and we enjoyed it so much that we were re-invited the next year. It was raining when we arrived, so my wife, who was in love with Naples from the first day, said, "Since you can't play golf, let's look at real estate." Much to my surprise, we bought a condo on the beach. We were enjoying it so much-and kept meeting such wonderful people-that we decided to sell our home in Nashville to live here full-time.

Next month: More routes to paradise.