Sad News about Bob Gill

By now you’ve probably heard about the passing of George W. “Bob” Gill Jr. who died on Wednesday of this week. Called the father of Broward tourism, Bob was a uniquely colorful individual, sometimes more aptly called the “godfather” of the local hospitality industry. In the community, he was most widely known as originally having built a number of the smaller hotels in the Birch area (between Las Olas and Sunrise boulevards) graduating in size to owning and operating both the Sheraton Yankee Clipper and the Yankee Trader Hotels. He was a strong supporter of the general managers of the former Fort Lauderdale Hotel Association through good times and bad – providing moral support, fiscal support, and even lending his lawyers to them when they needed legal advice or direction.

A number of my former colleagues had the experience of working for him. Bob was a hands-on boss and even after the selling of the hotels in 2005, he still went in to his office to keeping busy with various projects.

I first had the opportunity to meet Bob when I was being considered for the position of Executive Director of the Fort Lauderdale Hotel Association back in 1978. I had been warned not to be shocked by his salty language or scared of his gruff manner. In essence, I had been hired, but it wasn’t official until Bob gave his approval. The “interview” (if you can call it that) consisted of him telling me how he saw the future of Fort Lauderdale. My portion of the meeting consisted of smiling sweetly, not flinching at his off-color expressions, and saying how nice it was to meet him!

To his family, and especially to his daughter Linda Gill Morgan, go our heartfelt sympathy and condolences. Bob was a true, irreplaceable pioneer.