Dillon Thomas

When Dillon Thomas first moved to Lehigh Acres back in 1955, there were only six homes. Seeing the need for more homes as people were coming to this tiny community, he spent the next six and half years doing masonry and concrete work on more than 1,250 homes. He worked on the Admiral Lehigh Country Club, the first motel in Lehigh, first shopping center, first service station and four churches.

Thomas turns 90 on April 8 and there’s a big party planned for him at the Felda Community Center on April 11.

Thomas lived in Lehigh until around 1970, but what a life he can talk about.

He was born at Okeechobee and first moved to Lee County in 1920. He said he moved a lot around South Florida during his younger years because his dad was a cowboy and when he was 13, he also became a cowboy, the year being 1932.

But being a cowboy didn’t last last because when he moved to Fort Myers in 1920, he went to work and in 1934 and 1935, he worked for Western Union. He delivered many telegrams on his bike to Thomas Edison and his wife, who had a winter home on Mcgregor Blvd. It wasn’t unusual for him to ride his bike delivering telegrams nine miles a day. In those days, he would have to push the bike because of the many dirt roads.

He even once “got stopped,” he says for riding his bike too fast on the streets of downtown Fort Myers.

Over the years, he helped build the first barracks for the Gunnery Army Air Force Base where thousands of young men came to learn to fly bombers during World War II. The Buckingham base today is home to the Lee County Mosquito Control.

Thomas married and with is family worked on a ranch as a cowboy near the Seminole Indian reservation but when it was time for his oldest daughter, Peggy to go to school, he left so she could start classes in Fort Myers.

Today he has one granddaughter, Robin Byrd, and a great granddaughter, Carmen Contos, who still lives in Lehigh. They said that from all they have heard, he was known for his quality work and he was well-known for helping young men in learning construction skills and starting their own businesses.

After a period time, Dillon went back into the construction business in 1950 and much of Lehigh has his mark for the work he did on the new homes he helped to build.

Dillon ‘s favorite pastimes are music and hunting. He even had four different bands and he continues to play and sing at local events, parties and at his church, said Mavis Garrison, a daughter who lives in Rogersville, Tenn.

She said he was a self-taught guitar player and singer from when he was 14 and even wrote his own music. He has recorded his last song just recently and calls it “The Last Florida Cowboy.” He may be describing himself.

Today he lives in LaBelle, a place he has called home now for more than 30 years. Dillon has survived three of his wives. All together, he has three children, six step-children, 19 grandchildren, 30 great grandchildren and seven great-great grandchildren and there is on on the way.

He is the oldest of nine siblings, all of which are still living, Garrison said.

Looking back over his years in Lehigh, Dillon remembered that while working with a son-in-law, he was the masonry and concrete project manager for more than a thousand homes being build in Lehigh from 2003 and 2007.

That is when he said he saw the most growth in Lehigh.

“But he said he feels that Lehigh has grown too fast during thee last few years and the foreclosures upset him.

He expressed his concerns for the people who have lost and are losing their homes and the devastation on their lives,” Garrison said.

Dillon noted that many of the homes have been vacant for so long that they have lost their beauty and have brought about vandalism.

Garrison said her father has a bright mind for a man his age. Still very healthy and alert, she said he still goes to his doctor in Lehigh.

And he loves to brag to his doctor that after his annual physical each year, that he will see him again next year.

Garrison said her father has a great memory and still remembers things that happened when he was a very small boy.

“He remembers years that things happened … I wish I could do that,” she said.

One of the his many best friends in Lehigh she said was Mark Bateman who was the head of lot sales for the old Lehigh Corp. in Lehigh. Dillon said he and Bateman remain very close friends to this day. In fact, they often visit.

Not only was he involved in the first construction of homes in Lehigh, but he organized the first softball team, played for the first dance at the Steel Lake in the Pavilion in Lehigh and he also played for several years at the Lehigh Spring Festival. Only old timers can recall what the Steel Lake in the Pavilion may have been in those days.

“I am so excited about this party for him. We are expecting more than 400 people to show up. He will love it,” Garrison said.