The Wynn family legacy is one of serving their community

Don Q. Wynn COURTESY PHOTO "There is no doubt that it is around the family and home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained." - Winston Churchill

Many notable families in Naples embody this sentiment, but the Wynn family especially stands out for having bridged the values of the past to strengthen and maintain the future of both the family and the family business.

In the beginning, there was mom and pop

The Wynns have served the Southwest Florida community for more than eight decades, beginning with a mom-and-pop grocery store in Lakeland in the early 1930s.

In 1938, Peter Parley Wynn and his bride Vida moved to Naples and bought the Bayview Inn on Back Bay (what we now call Crayton Cove). Their son, Don Q. Wynn, stayed in Lakeland to run the business. Before leaving for his tour of duty in World War I, however, Don came to Naples to say goodbye to his parents. That's when he told them he'd never live in this town and urged them to sell both the grocery store and the restaurant they had opened at the inn.

After his service, Don came back to Naples with the intention of helping out temporarily. A hunting and fishing expedition in this newly discovered paradise, however, helped convince him he should stay. Anne Merle Echols of Everglades City helped, too. It wasn't long before he married her and settled into a life of which legacies are made. Moving on up

After the elder Wynns sold the building in Back Bay and retired to Georgia, Don and Anne moved the family business to Fifth Avenue South. Don was a forward-thinking man. To meet the growing demands of the community, he introduced the Sunshine Hardware store on Fifth Avenue South next door to his newly expanded Sunshine Suprex in 1953.

As their business and reputation grew, so did the family, with the births of Larry, Tom, Jerry, Timmy and Linda.

In 1964, Mayor Archie Turner ushered in the Wynns' new Sunshine Ace Hardware on Ninth Avenue South. The grocery store on the corner of Fifth Avenue South and Seventh Street (where Yabba is today) stood vigilant until 1999. Eventually, all services were moved to "Wynn's Corner" one U.S. 41 on block south of Naples Community Hospital.

Wynn's on Fifth was not just a cornerstone for the community; it was a personification of community. Of all the changes that have affected Naples, losing Wynn's on Fifth Avenue South was probably one of the most bittersweet passages of progress.

Passing the Torch

Eventually Timmy became Tim and took over Wynn's Market, adding a catering division and a to-die-for deli. Jerry became the highly respected CEO of Sunshine Ace Hardware (so we won't mention his "inadvertent" egging of the police chief's car on a particular Halloween night while Jerry was a teen hanging onto "Beardy Banyan," now the oldest banyan tree in Naples, at the corner of 12th Avenue South and Gordon Drive).

Larry and Tom went on to expand the Wynn family dynasty with a real estate and property management company.

The patriarch Don Q. certainly left his mark on Naples. He was elected to City Council and was a founder of First National Bank. Perhaps his greatest mark was the values he taught his children, which were passed on to the next generation and still serve as the cornerstone of the family businesses today.

The next generation

The word "values" is often bantered around in meetings and cleverly crafted into mission statements to present an image to the public. It's rare to find a company that actually lives and teaches the values it purports to hold dear — but then, Don Q. Wynn was a rare man. You can see his handiwork in his children and in his grandson, Michael, the president of the Wynns Sunshine Ace Hardware, where the tagline is "the helpful place."

A win-Wynn philosophy

At Don Q. Wynn's funeral a few years back, Larry Wynn asked who in attendance had been helped by his father. Hands from all walks of life went up. Helping is what the Wynns did best at Back Bay in the '30s, and it's still what they do best today.

Lois Bolin is the co-founder of Naples

Cultural Landscape, a fund at the Community

Foundation of Collier County. Napl e s B ackyard

History is the fund's educational initiative.

For more information, visit the NBYH

Mini-Museum at 1300 Third St. S., call 594-

2978 or visit www.naplesbackyardhistory.org.