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Ideas Abound To Honor A Friend

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By STEPHEN HAMMILL, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2007

KEYSTONE - Honoring a woman's memory is no easy task. Wisely spending $25,000 to do it can be a heavy burden.

In spring the Keystone Civic Association formed a committee to do just that. Members, including Frances Moore, Carol Prentiss, Rozellan Goldsworthy and Janet Nelson, drafted guidelines for the Anita Unruh Memorial Fund and have come up with recommendations to best honor the memory of its namesake.

Ideas on the table include an art scholarship, an art festival, a photo contest, money for animal care and equipment and food for homebound residents.

The frontrunner: an annual art festival. (Unruh was an art professor at the University of South Florida.)

Goldsworthy said the festival would be a recurring event, possibly held twice a year, once during the winter holidays and once as early as March.

'We don't expect to use up the monies this year,' she said.

Another suggestion: a donation to ACT, the Animal Coalition of Tampa, specializing in spay/neuter programs and pet-population education. 'Anita thought they really got to the heart of the animal problems,' Goldsworthy said.

Goldsworthy's husband, Tom, has an idea to help the grandson of local handyman and longtime resident Harry Gurr compete in Paralympic (wheelchair) events across the country.

'It was Will Unruh's Anita's husband specific desire that the membership of the Keystone Civic Association come up with the ideas and approve them,' Tom Goldsworthy said. 'He doesn't want this to be about him. He wants the money used in a way that will reflect well on her.'

The committee's recommendation is just that. Association President Tom Aderhold stressed that the membership must approve the final plan, perhaps this month.

The association will include a survey in its October newsletter, listing the committee's recommendations. Members may vote on the choices and also add their own ideas. The surveys will be collected at the next meeting of the association at month's end.

'I sat with Will face to face, and we hashed out what he wants and what would be the best use for the money,' Aderhold said. He appointed the committee of four to come up with a few worthy ideas. On that committee Aderhold wanted someone who knew Unruh personally.

Rozellan Goldsworthy met Anita Unruh about 25 years ago. They belonged to the Tampa Bay chapter of the Rare Fruits Council.

'We were interested in growing blueberries and wanted to talk to someone who knew how,' she said.

'She loved animals. If a stray cat came around she would take it in and feed it. She loved boats, and she loved her students.'

'Anita was not timid,' Tom Goldsworthy added. 'She was quiet, but she had her own mind.'

He said Will and Anita Unruh were 'very much in love. Before moving here they used to drive from the University of Illinois to Florida to go fishing every year.'

The Unruhs settled in Clearwater in 1960. They later moved to their home on Church Lake in 1979 and lived there for 25 years. In 2004 Unruh died a month after complications from surgery.

It was on Memorial Day 2007 when Will Unruh mentioned a desire to donate money on his late wife's behalf. Tom and Rozellan Goldsworthy visited Unruh at St. Mark Village, the assisted living facility in Palm Harbor where he moved after his wife's death.

By then, Unruh had a bad knee and didn't like going out to restaurants anymore, so they ate in.

'We stayed there and spent a couple of hours talking,' Tom Goldsworthy said. 'When we got near the end of things, he said, 'I've been thinking about giving donations to the garden club and the Keystone Civic Association.' We were thinking he might give a thousand dollars.'

The reality was a bombshell. He wrote out two checks for $25,000 each.

'It was unbelievable,' Tom Goldsworthy said.

Tom Aderhold and his wife, Barbara, collected the check for the association. Goldsworthy took the other check to the membership of the Fern Garden Club.
Aderhold immediately went about trying to figure out how to honor the couple's wishes.

Janet Nelson, a Keystone resident for 15 years, joined the Anita Unruh committee last month. She didn't know her personally, but after talking with her husband began to form a picture of the woman.

'I think her memory should be honored for doing such a good thing for the community,' she said.

Nelson favors using the bulk of the money toward an annual art festival in Unruh's name, to be held at Keystone Park. She also likes the idea of setting up an art scholarship to be awarded annually.

'I can't think of a better way to honor her,' Nelson said. 'Her husband wanted this money to be used locally. He wanted the Keystone Civic Association - not the board, but the at-large membership - to decide how to spend it.'

All of the committee members agreed they wanted to find a way to grow the $25,000 and keep Unruh's name in the minds of residents in the coming years.

Reporter Stephen Hammill can be reached at (813) 865-1523 or at shammill@tampatrib.com.

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