October 2, 2007

Sadowski, Sandusky

From the pages of Chiles family lore:

“one of the peculiar things about Dad was, for a heavyweight political player, he had a really hard time with names. He would always remember faces, but he could confuse names in befuddling ways. For example, a hilarious story was told at his funeral by Buddy MacKay, the Lt. Governor who became Governor when my Dad died in office. He had several favorite cabinet members. One such man was William, ‘Bill’ Sadowski, who was Secretary of Community Development. Bill and my Dad had served in Florida’s legislature together and they had great respect for each other and were close friends. Bill died tragically in a plane crash on state business, and all the state mourned his loss.

“For some reason my Dad couldn’t say Sadowski. Instead he always said Sandusky. We were good friends growing up Lakeland with the Sandusky family, so I figure that was the reason for his faux pas, but who really knows. Buddy related the story that finally Bill Sadowski became resigned to his last name being transformed by the Governor. One day he told Buddy, 'well if the Governor is convinced that its Sandusky, then I guess he’s right?!'”

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