'I was one day wiser': Lake Wales' Robin Gibson formed a decades-long bond with Bob Graham

Bob Graham enjoyed telling people about the flight of a particular stork in November 1936.

On Nov. 8, he would say, the stork flew over Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, and dropped a bundle to a family. Continuing west, the next day the stork delivered another bundle to a household in Miami.

The first bundle contained a baby who came to be known as Robin Gibson, now deputy mayor of Lake Wales. The second bundle contained Graham, the former Florida governor and senator.

“What I've told a lot of people was that, I always said that I was one day wiser — but could never sell it,” Gibson said Thursday. “He would usually call on our birthdays. He got a kick out of the two birthdays.”

Gibson, 87, maintained a friendship for decades with Graham, who died Tuesday in Gainesville at the same age. Gibson said Graham’s family has asked him and Bud Shorstein, another friend from their days as students at the University of Florida in the late 1950s, to deliver the eulogy at a public funeral to be held in Miami.

Graham and Gibson became aware of each other as class presidents of rival high schools — Miami Senior High and Edison High, respectively. Enrolling at the University of Florida, they became brothers in the Sigma Nu fraternity.

While at UF, Graham began dating a woman Gibson had known since elementary school, Adele Khoury.

“And then Adele is an incurable matchmaker, and she thought that her sorority sister, Jean, would be a good match for me,” Gibson recalled. “And so, that has resulted in 62 years of marriage.”

Gibson described Graham as “quiet and studious” in college.

“He was a Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Florida, which means he studied and also means he was as intelligent as the dickens,” Gibson said. “He was not a hellraiser or anything like that. A real straight arrow.”

Behind scenes on campaign

The men remained close as Gibson moved to Lake Wales to join a law practice and Graham, who had earned a law degree at Harvard, gained election to the Florida House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1966. After ascending to the Florida Senate, Graham decided that he wanted to run for governor.

Graham convened a meeting in Tampa of eight or 10 close friends, including Gibson. They knew that he lacked statewide name recognition and discussed ways of drawing attention to the candidate.

Someone suggested walking the state, but Lawton Chiles, a Lakeland native, had already done that during his 1970 campaign for the U.S. Senate, earning the sobriquet “Walkin’ Lawton.” Then someone suggested doing “work days,” in which Graham would perform a series of blue-collar jobs alongside regular Floridians.

The only member of the cabal who discouraged the idea was Graham’s older half-brother, Bill Graham, Gibson recalled.

“I know why he was against it — because Bob basically was a klutz,” Gibson said. “We were talking about being a lineman, what great pictures that would make, climbing telephone poles and working on buildings and stuff like that. I know Bill thought he was going to kill himself.”

Gibson recalled Graham “throwing around fertilizer bags” on the property of citrus baron Ben Hill Griffin III in Frostproof. Though Graham hailed from a wealthy family, Gibson watched him connect with Floridians of more humble origins at the work sites.

Graham had a naturally inquisitive personality, Gibson said.

“He just really enjoyed and appreciated these people, who enjoyed and appreciated him,” he said. “It was his coming out. It was his development of his personality, the exposure to how other people lived and what they did for a living, his appreciation for the average guy.”

'What's essential' In 6 decades of law, politics and education, Robin Gibson boils it down

Graham not only survived the work days, he arose from deep in a seven-man race and was elected governor on Gibson’s birthday in 1978. Graham soon called his friend, asking him to join his administration as general counsel. Gibson recalled his response.

“‘OK, well, I'll give you six months, because I am in the middle of my practice,’” he said. “’I've got a home in Lake Wales. But we'll pack up and we'll go to to Tallahassee for six months.’ He didn't bat an eye. He says, ‘You'll have to get your successor.’”

Gibson stuck to that proposal and returned to Lake Wales after six months.

Graham later appointed Gibson to the Board of Regents, which oversaw state universities. After the Florida Legislature abolished the board in 2001, Graham encouraged Gibson to draft a constitutional amendment that created the current Florida Board of Governors, providing a buffer for the university system against political meddling.

After two terms as governor, Graham served in the U.S. Senate from 1987 to 2005.

Curious toward strangers

Throughout his public life, Graham maintained the quirky custom of carrying a small notepad and jotting details about people he met.

“He was very meticulous about that, and I think part of it was his attention to detail,” Gibson said. “Well, it started as something very practical, because he is not terribly good on names. And, of course, he's met zillions of people. And so he would ask them to write their names in the book, or their address.”

Those who provided addresses would often receive a personal letter from Graham.

Gibson told of an episode that illustrated his friend’s curiosity toward strangers. The pair had arrived at the airport in Winter Haven, and as they walked through the lobby they encountered a man from a northern state.

“And Bob says, ‘Well, what brings you to Florida?' And he starts quizzing him about why he came, where he's from, how often he comes, things like that, in a very pleasant way,” Gibson said. “And the guy says something like, ‘Well, who are you?’ He just, I mean, just deadpan, ‘I'm the governor.’ And the guy says, ‘What?’”

Graham and Gibson often traveled together, along with Shorstein, the trio’s designated “camp counselor for life,” sometimes with their wives and sometimes “stag.” Gibson recalled an extended sojourn in Europe that included time in Berlin and a visit to Czechoslovakia.

For years, the college buddies also attended Spring Training baseball games throughout Florida.

Gibson, who still works as a lawyer, also traveled with Graham to research institutes launched by former political leaders before the opening of the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida in 2006.

Graham incurred a stroke in 2020 and spent his last years at a retirement community in Gainesville. Gibson said it became increasingly difficult to communicate with his friend, but Graham recognized him during a last visit about two months ago.

As memories bubbled up, Gibson shared a final anecdote involving his late friend. When Graham became governor, relations between politicians and media remained friendly enough that governors regularly attended the Capitol Press Corps skits, which included “roasts” of state leaders.

Gibson recalled attending one such gathering when Graham was governor.

“Well, we go to the big dinner — no Graham,” he said. “You’ve got the head table up there; the seat’s empty.”

All in attendance took their seats as the ceremony began. The kitchen doors opened, and waiters entered carrying food.

“Here come the waiters, and Graham is one of the waiters,” Gibson said. “He's carrying the tray and serving the plates, and deadpan — didn't say anything. And then suddenly, people started realizing one of the waiters is Graham. And he loved it. It was a way of kind of topping the press corps, and that was really clever.”

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lake Wales' Gibson maintained friendship with Bob Graham for decades