Heywood A. Turner

Turner, Heywood A., 90, died Friday, February 17, in Tampa, Florida, surrounded by family. Heywood was born March 6, 1926, to Anne Margaret Pugh Turner and Heywood A. Turner Sr. in Richmond, Virginia. The family moved to Tampa in 1936, where his father joined The Tampa Tribune as a typesetter. Heywood excelled at B.C. Graham Grammar School, Jefferson Junior High and Memorial Junior High, and graduated from Hillsborough High School in the class of January 1944. At Hillsborough, Heywood played on the tennis team, basketball team and lettered for two years on the baseball team. He was a member of the honor society, president of the Key Club, president of his senior class, and salutatorian of the graduating class. He was the junior Rotarian and received the American Legion Scholastic Award. Fifty years later, Heywood was elected to the Hillsborough High Alumni Hall of Fame. After graduation, he joined the Navy V-12 program, studying at Duke University and the University of Louisville Speed Scientific School of Engineering. While at Duke, he was inducted into the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. Heywood pitched for the Louisville Cardinal baseball team 1945–’46, and was a member of the Wandering Greeks men’s choral group. After discharge from the Navy, in June 1946, he returned to Tampa. After working briefly for the Pullman RR Co. and National Cylinder Gas, he began a career of nearly 42 years with Tampa Electric Company in 1947, starting as an “oiler” at the Peter O. Knight Power Plant on the midnight watch, at the site now occupied by The Tampa Tribune building. He was one of 688 employees at the time. In 1948, Heywood was granted a leave to attend the University of Florida under the GI Bill, and earned his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree in June, 1949. Upon graduation, Heywood resumed his career at TECO. Heywood was drafted by the Army in 1953, for a second stint in the military, and served two years in the 9584th TSU Signal Corps Engineering Laboratory at Fort Monmouth, NJ, working on the top secret Acquisition and Tracking Radar project. Upon discharge in 1955, he returned to TECO, as a distribution engineer. That same year he was tapped as assistant to the vice president, and was soon on a path to management. Beginning with his promotion to assistant manager of Distributions, every position he held had not existed before his appointment to it. During Heywood’s illustrious career at TECO, he served in critical positions in Distribution, Transmission, Operations, Communications, and Production. Heywood retired as Senior Vice President of Production in 1989. He was particularly proud to have had the opportunity to personally interact with nearly all 3,000 TECO associates then employed, of whom nearly 1,200 reported directly or indirectly to him. In 2014, Heywood published his personal history, The Luckiest Guy Who Ever Walked the Face of the Earth, which is also an exceptional history of TECO during his four-plus decades in its employ. In addition to his career, Heywood was devoted to his children and grandchildren, spending countless hours involved in their activities. Heywood was a past president of the Ybor City Rotary Club and served many years on the Life Enrichment Center’s board of trustees. He was also a deacon, elder and presbytery representative in the Presbyterian Church, and sang in the choir. On January 26, 1952, Heywood wed Mary Louise Van Dyke, who predeceased him in 2009, after 57 years of marriage. Heywood is survived by their children: Sheila Catherine Geer (Charlie), Palm Coast; Lee Anne Cubr, Tampa; and Heywood A. “Woody” Turner III (Gay), Odessa; grandchildren: Justin Wilde, White Plains, NY: Blake Turner (Tala), Land O Lakes; Steve Cubr, Jensen Beach; Chase Turner, Odessa; and Michele Derry (Ken), New York, NY; great-grandson Conor Derry; sister-in-law Marilyn Van Dyke, Tampa; and his joyful companion JoAn Simpson, Tampa. He was predeceased by brothers John Howard “Jack” Turner, Tampa Times columnist Robert Walton “Bob” Turner, and his brother-in-law William Van Dyke. He would also say he is survived by hundreds, possibly thousands, of people he called friend, not only in Tampa but across the country. Pallbearers are: grandsons Justin Wilde, Blake Turner, Steve Cubr, and Chase Turner. Honorary pallbearers are all his fellow Tampa Electric Company retirees. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations be made to the Forest Hills Presbyterian Church restoration fund, Life Enrichment Center of Tampa, or the Hillsborough High School Alumni Association.