Cover Stories: Where Are They Now?

E. Charlton Prather — September 1966

Dr. Prather was director of the state’s division of epidemiology in 1966, and the magazine praised him for his work in combating infectious disease. Prather, who later became director of the state health department, is retired now and lives in Tallahassee, where a health department building was named for him in 2000. Prather, 78, says some things don’t change much in 42 years: “I’m still baldheaded.”

Don Tucker — March 1976

Tucker was among Florida’s most influential politicians in 1976. In the midst of his first term as Speaker of the Florida House, he’s pictured on the cover playing chess with Dempsey Barron, then president of the state Senate. Tucker, now 73, went on to serve another term as Speaker before leaving the House in 1978. Barron, one of Florida’s great power brokers, died in 2001. Tucker is now a lobbyist living in Tallahassee. Term limits, he says, put an end to longtime legislative power brokers like him and Barron. “Now they start running for Speaker just after they get elected,” he says. That lack of experience, he says, is why he thinks that legislative staff members have more influence in Tallahassee than before. “Somebody has to know what’s going on,” he says.

George Wedgworth — May 1979

Wedgworth still has a quibble with the cover story headlined “Sugar: A Sweet Business Turns Sour.” Wedgworth, who will turn 80 next month, was president and CEO of the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida then, titles he retains today. He thought the bleak outlook the article projected for the sugar industry was too negative. “I am happy that we have proven that the industry wasn’t as bad off as it was portrayed to be,” he says, adding that big sugar’s outlook remains positive today. Still, even after 48 years leading the co-op, he admits to being puzzled by the state’s proposed deal to buy out U.S. Sugar. “We can’t get our arms around it yet,” he says. “There are a lot of unanswered questions. As a taxpayer, I’m personally opposed to what they have done and the way they have done it.”

Margaret Sagan — July 1979

Our cover proclaimed Sagan “the state’s top MBA graduate.” She was 27 then and after graduating with straight A’s from Florida State University, she was heading off to Houghton-Mifflin publishers in Boston to edit high school economics and accounting textbooks. She became vice president of market research for the publisher’s school division. Sagan retired in 2007 to focus on charitable work, including volunteering for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Boston. “Now I’m looking forward to applying that same energy and dedication — along with my business skills and experience — within the not-for-profit arena,” she says. “In a way, it’s 1979 all over again in terms of just starting out in a new chapter of my career.”

Charlie Reed — August 1986

After Bob Graham left the governor’s office, Florida Trend took a look at some of Graham’s most trusted advisers and projected which were most likely to carry on Graham’s legacy. Reed, Graham’s chief of staff, was just establishing himself as chancellor of the State University System of Florida, a job he held for 13 years. He left in 1998 to become chancellor of the California State University System, where he currently oversees 47,000 faculty and staff, 450,000 students, 23 campuses and a $5-billion budget. Back in Tallahassee last year for a luncheon speech at the LeRoy Collins Institute, Reed, always a straight talker, told the audience that Florida’s university system needed lots of work. “Florida’s future economically and socially and the prosperity of this state is at stake. ... Only Florida has made such a mess of its own governance system.”

Bill McBride — December 1988

Along with Robert Feagin and W. Reeder Glass, McBride was one of three Holland & Knight co-managing partners pictured on the cover. Joining them was Chesterfield Smith, the firm’s legendary leader. The question was, should Florida’s biggest law firm expand? It did, of course, and McBride would eventually become the firm’s leader. McBride, who appeared again on Trend’s June 1999 cover with his wife, Alex Sink, now the state’s CFO, ran for governor in 2002, losing to Jeb Bush, and returned to practicing law. He’s now with Barnett, Bolt, Kirkwood, Long & McBride in Tampa. Feagin and Glass, incidentally, are still with Holland & Knight. Smith died in 2003.

Christian Searcy — November 1999

His face, unsmiling, eyes glaring directly ahead, took up most of the cover. The headline was equally intimidating: “Florida’s Most Feared Lawyers.” Searcy, a Palm Beach County trial lawyer, remains one of Florida’s top trial lawyers, specializing in seeking big verdicts for victims. Some notable wins include $256 million in 2001 for the wrongful death of a 6-year-old boy and the paralysis of twin 3-year-olds resulting from a car accident in Riviera Beach; $30.6 million last year from a birth-injury case in Lee County; and $25.8 million last year for a fatal prescription mix-up involving Walgreens. This summer, however, he spent six weeks trying a birth-injury case in Orlando — and lost. “It’s a hard job,” he says. “It’s like being a gunslinger or a boxing champion because you’re only as good as your next one.”

Julia Johnson — October 2000

Johnson, chairwoman of the state’s IT Florida Task Force then, was the face of “Florida’s High Tech Future.” Now 45, she is CEO of Florida-based NetCommunications, which offers high-tech companies a variety of support services. She also serves on several company boards, including MasTec, Allegheny Energy and Northwestern Energy. She says the cover story helped “validate” her career path, but what she remembers most is the overwhelming response. Much of it, she says, was based on her being the first African-American woman to be featured on Florida Trend’s cover. “It was an amazing storm of support and pride from the African-American community,” she says. “I became like a rock star.”