Tribute: Lyle Flagg's Mark in Brandon Was Wide and Deep

This story was first posted May 31, 2013.

People who remember "the cars" marvel at the recollection, of a principal who was so beloved by two student bodies and sets of teachers and staff that they each raised funds to buy him a car before he drove off to other endeavors.

That was Lyle Flagg, a World War II veteran, who after his 85 years of life came to an end this week is being remembered as the consummate educator who helped shape a town.

"When I think of the giants in our community, Lyle Flagg was an icon," said Earl Lennard, who served as both Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections and Hillsborough County superintendent of schools. "We lost another one of our tall timber."

• For his obituary, see Well-Known Educator Lyle Flagg Dead at 85

Flagg was principal of five Hillsborough County public schools, including East Bay High School and what was then Pinecrest High School and Dowdell Junior High School. He opened Brandon High School at its Victoria Street location and he opened Armwood High School, where the stadium is named in his honor.

"When you open a new school, a number of people don't want to leave the school they are attending," Lennard said. "We had to draw boundaries and we needed a strong principal to do that. He was the perfect person to head up Armwood, when it opened as the second high school in the Brandon area." 

Lisa Rodriguez was a student at Brandon High when nickels, dimes and dollars were raised to buy a car for Flagg, who before that had been riding a motor scooter to school, according to his son Howard Flagg.

Flagg as principal "was always out in the hallways, walking around, joking with kids," said Rodriguez, a former honorary mayor of Brandon, whose husband, Sandy, is the namesake of the building that houses both the Brandon Regional Library and the Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association on Vonderburg Drive. "But he could mean business, too. If someone got out of line, he reined them back in. He had a knack for getting kids to do what he wanted them to do. He wanted them to excel."

As for the car?

"He loved that little car we bought him," Rodriguez said,  "He drove it and he drove it and he drove it and he wouldn't get rid of that car."

But he did, years later, when the student body at Armwood raised money to buy Flagg a car as well, with one condition — that students be allowed to take a sledgehammer to the car that Brandon students had provided 17 years earlier.

"See, we set a tradition there," Rodriguez said with a chuckle.

From tradition is born a legacy, and Lyle Flagg's book in that regard is filled with many chapters.

Lyle Flagg was a trustee for the Brandon hospital and chairman for both the Greater Brandon Area Chamber of Commcerce and the Greater Riverview Chamber of Commerce. He was president of both the Brandon Lions Club and Rotary Club of Brandon. He served as chairman of the Florida Committee of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and as executive director of the Hillsborough Association of School Administrators. In 2011 he was awarded the Hillsborough County Human Rights Person of the Year Award for his work mentoring minority school administrators. He was a longtime member of Nativity Catholic Church.

"He was a huge person in the Brandon community and he did more than anybody I know of with the exception of Bob Dykes and Julian Craft," said longtime Brandon attorney B. Lee Elam, in reference to two other pillars of the Brandon community.

• See In Death, Brandon Old-Timer Bob Dykes Remembered as a Town 'Pillar'

• See A Crowning Achievement for ECHO, Client Service Center Opens
  

"We were so lucky Mother's Day weekend, the whole family was here, he just sort of rallied and we had a chance to spend personal time with him and just say what we wanted to say," said Lee Hinkle, one of Flagg's five children, his oldest and only daughter. "He was not usually that verbose about emotional things. He said, 'I'm just going to go up there and knock gently on the door and see if they let me in.' "

Howard Flagg said his sister truly is his father's daughter; she served as vice chairman of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, lobbyist for Hospital Corporation of America and, as vice president of Florida State University, was, "among many other things, Bobby Bowden's boss."

She also got to fly with the Blue Angels.

Flying was a passion for Lyle Flagg, a pilot who built his own experimental aircraft. He parachuted out of an airplane at age 65. Over the course of 38 years, he served as a founder, board member and director emeritus for Sun 'n Fun in Lakeland, which, according to Howard Flagg, has had an economic impact in Lakeland that annually amounts to some $60 million, in part because of an event that amount to the nation's second-largest air show.

Constancy and community marked his life.

Flagg was born Jan. 13, 1928 to Forrest and Louise Flagg in Fayette, Maine. He  served in the Navy during World War II and received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Maine. He leaves behind his wife, Vivian, who he married 65 years ago this August.

"When we moved to Florida in 1954 Brandon was cow pastures everywhere," Lee Hinkle said. "He really, really believed in the community and that being involved in the community was an extension of his public school service. He believed that if you were going to be involved with students, teachers and parents, then you had to be involved in their community. It was a good example to set for students, that community service is a good thing."