L. Gale Lemerand: Bet on THIS ‘Jockey’

By Tim Norton

A biography published on Gale Lemerand in 2002 and entitled “To Win in Business…Bet on the ‘Jockey’” is a fascinating look at the life of this remarkable businessman and philanthropist who gets up every day ready to make the world a better place.

Strong, independent, determined and punctual (always punctual), Gale Lemerand, now in his 90th year, continues as a strategic and tactical leader in his business and investment interests, a mentor to younger business partners, and a force for good through his extensive and generous philanthropy.

Step onto the Daytona State College campus and Gale’s passion to support students pursuing a college education is readily apparent…a path he says he wished he’d pursued more fully as a young man.

Lemerand’s influence is everywhere… from the L. Gale Lemerand Health, Wellness and Community Education

Center – to the L. Gale Lemerand Center for Entrepreneurship, which produces semi-annual Lemerand Speaker Series events – to the centerpiece of the Daytona Beach main campus, the L. Gale Lemerand Student Center that opened in 2019.

Beyond Daytona State, Gale Lemerand’s name and reputation for business acumen, as a respected entrepreneur, and as a generous supporter of important causes permeates the Volusia County region he loves – as well as with his favored university, the University of Florida.

Sitting with Lemerand following his return from celebrating his 89th birthday with close friends and his beloved Jill Simpkins, his fiancé and partner for 17 years, he is reflective about his life and what he wishes to be remembered for.

That will, without a doubt, include a long list of accomplishments – most important being his investments in education and other causes he believes in and has supported throughout his lifetime.

Strong Out of the Gate

Gale was born in Escanaba, Michigan, where his family shared a water well with their neighbors, but they had, as he recalls, their “own outhouse.” Gale’s inquisitive nature, biography author E.L.

Wilks wrote, set the stage for his life. It was, at least in part, his curiosity to know and learn by doing, to understand things more fully – from all angles – and to engage more deeply in his businesses that propelled him forward in many successful ventures.

Lemerand’s “curious and rambunctious manner,” Wilks wrote, translated into a lifelong proclivity to take risks, to see possibilities where others didn’t, and to apply his energy and passions first to his businesses and now, later in life, to the many causes he believes in and supports financially.

Wilks describes Lemerand as a selfmade entrepreneur who launched his first business – an insulation installation company – out of an old barn in Illinois in 1974. Lemerand sold the company, Gale Industries, in 1995 for more than $100 million… the same year he was named Florida Entrepreneur of the Year.

Peppered throughout the book are “Lemerand Lessons,” principles that Gale embodies and which guide how he lives his life, manages his businesses, makes investment decisions and how he determines what causes to support. The “lessons” shed light on his thinking on customer service, debt, management, motivation, competition, negotiating, planning, teamwork, stress, education, risk, and more.

Know the Track, and the Risks

Among the Lemerand Lessons, two principles – education and risk – stand out as keys to the remarkable impact Lemerand has had in business and philanthropy.

“Education…that’s the one thing I was missing – a formal education,” he said. “I feel I could have been more successful with a formal education. Education is very, very important. I do think common sense and experience are more important, but if you have common sense, experience, and a formal education, it’s wonderful. Because of that, I really support higher education now.”

Gale joined the Merchant Marines upon graduating high school, and soon after enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he was initially deployed to Japan and Korea before being sent to Scott Air Force Base in southern Illinois. His four years in the Air Force provided valuable life lessons and experience that would serve him well as an entrepreneur.

In 1956, as a civilian again and with a family to support, he enrolled in night classes at Belleville Junior College. His time there was short lived – “That’s the one thing I was missing.”

Along the way, like any good jockey, Gale studied the ‘tracks’ where he’d compete, making it a priority to learn about the various businesses where he’d eventually make his mark.

A self-described “gambler,” Gale Lemerand’s life has been, in some manner, a series of calculated risks.

From an early age through early adulthood, Lemerand did everything: delivering newspapers, washing dishes, digging potatoes, selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door, and even “selling whiskey on the black market

(in Korea) and serving part-time as an altar boy in Catholic Church.”

At every turn, Lemerand pursued opportunities to make money to support his family and protect them from the struggles he faced growing up.

Entrepreneurs, by their very nature, must be willing to take risks – some because they know the rewards they seek and some because they simply possess the ability, perhaps a sixth sense, to see what others do not and, as one definition of entrepreneur put it, to outwit others.

Staring Down the Home Stretch

Soon after selling Gale Industries, Lemerand, appointed as a member of the Daytona State College (formerly known as Daytona Beach Community College) District Board of Trustees, made his first endowed gift of $600,000, which established the L. Gale Lemerand Health, Wellness and Community Education Center.

The athletic complex includes an aquatic center, competition gymnasium, health and wellness fitness center, athletics leadership offices, training spaces, and more. The facility is open to the public and provides teaching, training and competition spaces for student-athletes who are members of the College’s 10 competitive teams.

Shortly after the gift to DBCC, Lemerand followed with a $2 million gift to the University of Florida. He intended for the gift to remain secret, however with the gift’s announcement made as part of the UF’s Honor Roll of Donors in 1998 the secret of his generosity was out – as was his loyalty as a true Gator. His continuing support for the University of Florida has numbered him among the highly regarded Bull Gators.

His support for education includes gifts to Bethune-Cookman University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and, more recently, to a Volusia County School, Palm Terrace Elementary, which is located close to Daytona State.

He returned to Daytona State in 2007 with an endowment gift that provides ongoing funding for the L. Gale

Lemerand Center for Entrepreneurship, the core program being the annual speaker series bearing his name. His friend, the late Bernie Simpkins, father of Jill, challenged Gale to start a speaker series mirroring one Simpkins started at Eastern Florida State College (formerly Brevard Community College). That speaker series, the B.W. Simpkins Speaker Series, was established in the year 2000.

Ask Gale about his friend Bernie Simpkins and emotion wells up in his eyes as he quotes one of Simpkins’ favorite Old Testament scriptures.

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.” – Isaiah 40:31“

“I miss my friend Bernie Simpkins every day,” he said.

Bet on the ‘Jockey’ & Count On Your Friends

Gale Lemerand’s story is one of hard work, attention to detail, customerfocused service and resilience in business.

Added to those qualities, the ones that have driven his success in leading thriving businesses, are the traits of loyalty, honesty, generosity, and faith, especially when it comes to his family and friends.

“To Win in Business…Bet on the ‘Jockey’” is replete with stories of friends, business associates, fellow entrepreneurs, community philanthropists, and all manner of friends near and far, including Mori Hosseini.

Together with Gale, Forough and Mori Hosseini have done important things to advance the mission of Daytona State College through their personal generosity and with their advocacy and influence in securing state funding for major capital projects.

Gale Lemerand’s transformational gift in 2017 – a gift that provided the corpus of funds for Daytona State’s first residence hall and for which the College named the stunningly beautiful and functional centerpiece of the Daytona Beach Campus, the L. Gale Lemerand Student Center –launched a new era of impact and service for students attending DSC.

Forough Hosseini, DSC’s District Board of Trustees chair at the time Gale made this gift, said, “At the end of the day when we go to Tallahassee and say, ‘We really need more money. We really need this building,’ they say, ‘What do you bring to the table? What has the community done? Have you guys stepped up?’ And you know Gale, because of you, over and over again, we can go and say our community has.”

What’s Next?

As he reflects on his accomplishments and thinks of what, at 89, he still wants to achieve, he remembers a conversation with his best friend, Bernie Simpkins, who told Gale he was counting on renewed strength, running and not growing weary, and walking while not growing faint.

“I want to see the results of my good fortune – giving away my resources while I’m still alive (and) supporting things I believe in and I know are making a positive difference.”

Bet on ‘Jockey’ L. Gale Lemerand? You betcha I would…every single day.