Nice Guys Can Finish First

This story started with a quest for the stuff of movies: the power versions of Jimmy Stewart’s selfless character George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life and Olivia de Havilland’s kindhearted Melanie in Gone with the Wind.
 
We wanted to know, in this community where millions of dollars are raised for charity in a single day, if there are big guys who actually commit random acts of kindness and then forget to stick around for the photo ops. Are there presidents and CEOs out there who gave of themselves long before they had the resources to write a check? Leaders who have reached the top without compromising their ideals?

The difficulty, it turned out, wasn’t in finding "nice guys." The challenges were narrowing the choices, and then persuading them to let us share their stories. Here are six inspiring men and women who did, reluctantly, consent to stand in for the scores of caring people at the top.

Dr. Mark Asperilla and Dr. David Klein, Port Charlotte
Internal medicine specialist Mark Asperilla and ophthalmologist David Klein complement each other "like Batman and Robin," says Paul Ringenberger, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy of Charlotte County. "Where one is, the other is right beside him." The two have been advocates for the disabled, the destitute and the disenfranchised of Charlotte County for nearly 20 years, helping to provide at least $4 million in free healthcare.

Asperilla, a native of the Philippines, has dreamed dreams that nobody expected to come true, yet supporters have tapped into his dreams and made them realities: an HIV clinic, a disability clinic for quadriplegics and paraplegics, a hepatitis C clinic, a post-hurricane medical facility in FEMA Park, a mobile clinic for migrant worker camps, even the nation’s first emergency medical response team for bioterrorism. He has no more room on his walls for more certificates of thanks from medical societies, a governor, two United States presidents and the people of Charlotte County.
To help finance his various community health projects, Asperilla develops new businesses—from a grapefruit orchard to a hotel.

His latest big dream is the St. Vincent de Paul Medical Clinic to serve the county’s huge population of uninsured residents. With Klein, he has mobilized an army of physicians, physicians’ assistants, nurses, couriers, patient advocates and support personnel to provide services completely free, including pharmaceutical products with the support of Ringenberger’s pharmacy. "By ‘free,’ we mean no co-pays, no sliding scale. Free is free," Ringenberger says.

"While Dr. Asperilla has the intense passion and ideas, Dr. Klein is the business/political half of the duo," says Ringenberger. "He’s methodical, organized and logistical. No obstacles—time, governmental red tape, even death threats—seem to dampen the resolve of Dr. David Klein when he sets his heart and mind to the needs of the medically underserved."

Klein’s commitment to the less fortunate extends far beyond his work with Asperilla. He serves in leadership positions of local charitable organizations ranging from the United Way and the Charlotte Education Foundation to Habitat for Humanity and the YMCA. He attributes his inspiration and dedication to helping others to words his mother spoke when he announced his intention to go to medical school: "It’s nice you want to be a doctor, but you’d better remember you’re out there to help people." He has remembered.

"They deeply believe in equal access to quality healthcare," says Pat Garritan, executive director of the Charlotte County Medical Society. "This [new medical center] is nothing new. They wear me out. But it’s always good."


M. Jean Rawson, family law attorney, Naples
Jean Rawson works in the sad world of abuse, broken families, bitter divorces, custody battles and children lost in the system. But, say her colleagues and the judges before whom she stands, her calm, professional demeanor inspires conflict resolution and helps people get on with their lives. It earned her the 2006 Lion of the Law Award, the highest honor bestowed upon one attorney each year by vote of the Collier County circuit and county judges.

"It’s obvious that she considers carefully the situation and counsels her clients on the merits of working things out, for both emotional and economic reasons. She has her clients in mediation more than the average family lawyer," says Judge Hugh Hayes, who presented the award. "Nobody wants to leave court feeling like it was a trial by combat. Jean makes a tough experience as pleasant as it is possible to be.

"New lawyers sometimes tend to tell their clients, ‘We can take them to the cleaners.’ Instead of looking at billable hours, it takes experience and maturity [like Jean’s] to allow them to see how not taking a case to trial frees them up to look at other cases," he says.

Characteristically, Rawson spends those freed-up hours helping families who can’t pay for legal services, creating community service programs and then rolling up her sleeves to work with them, and helping rebuild the lives of at-risk girls in Immokalee.

"Through her leadership, the Collier County Bar Association raised $5,000 to buy books for our girls," says Threasa Miller, executive director of the PACE Center in Immokalee, which Rawson helped create. "It was unbelievably meaningful to the girls that they could actually take books home."

Rawson stands out for her small gestures, too, like making newcomers feel welcome, says Jeanne Seewald, a partner in the law firm of Hahn Loeser & Parks. "She extended a warm smile and handshake when I came to Naples, and she didn’t stop there. She stayed in touch and opened doors for me."


Robbie Roepstorff, president, Edison National Bank, Fort Myers, and Bank of the Islands, Sanibel
When my daughter was a senior at Bishop Verot High School, Robbie Roepstorff came to speak about careers in banking," says Bill Valenti, who happens to be president of a competing bank.

"When she finished speaking, you could hear a pin drop, then all the girls surged to the front of the room. The response was, ‘I want to be just like her!’"

Roepstorff is often described as gracious, unpretentious and a great lady. Her many honors and awards include the 2006 Junior Achievement Business Leadership Hall of Fame Laureate Award and multiple Citizen of the Year, Alumna of the Year and various Outstanding Business awards. But it’s how Roepstorff goes about her life and business that tells the story.

When Hurricane Charley devastated Sanibel and Captiva islands, people needed cash, so Roepstorff, not knowing whether she herself had become homeless, set up check-cashing stations in the bank lobby until the last person was served.

Peggy Hyche, her longtime executive secretary, tells how Roepstorff stepped in to help her family after Hyche fell ill—at work. Roepstorff insisted on calling for medical help. Hyche was in the hospital when the decision was made to Air-Evac her to Gainesville, she recalls. "The cost was about $7,000. My husband was a basket case. He called Robbie, who by that time was attending her son’s football game. She immediately came to my husband’s side and put the entire $7,000 on her personal credit card." When doctors told Hyche’s family that she probably wouldn’t make it, Roepstorff was the one who went with Hyche’s husband to the funeral home. "I’m alive today by a miracle, and Robbie Roepstorff was a huge part of that miracle," she says.

Roepstorff won’t accept responsibility for any miracles. "When God is first in your life, everything will come out right. We may not understand it at the time but we have to trust," she says. "If we’re lucky, we may be around long enough to see how the pieces of the puzzle fall into place."

She’s quick to credit her husband, friends and especially her mother. "She’s absolutely my role model," Roepstorff says. "When I was growing up and anyone needed anything, people said, ‘Go see Edith; she’ll make it happen.’ When my mother developed medical problems, we joke that it was no surprise to hear it was an enlarged heart. She always had the biggest heart in Florence, Alabama."


Fermin Diaz, president, WilsonMiller Inc., Naples
Cuban-born Fermin Diaz was 14 when his parents managed to send him to the safety of relatives in Naples. He had worked his way through two years of college by the time they could follow him. After he earned his engineering degree from the University of South Florida College of Engineering, a local engineering company was persuaded by his desire and potential, and gave him a chance.

Diaz recently celebrated his 30th anniversary at WilsonMiller, which now has offices throughout Florida. He’s committed to mentoring young people, providing education and job opportunities for others, as once was done for him.

His unflagging efforts to provide continuing education, job satisfaction and a positive, ethical workplace earned WilsonMiller the distinction as one of the best places to work by the Economic Development Council of Collier County, as well as the Uncommon Friends Business Ethics Award and the Naples Alliance for Children’s Family Friendly Business Award.

In the early days of the Education Foundation of Collier County, when it needed office space, "Fermin cleared out a space they’d been using for storage, sent his IT guys to help set up our computers, and graciously let us hold meetings in their boardroom," says president Susan McManus.

His employees are among his biggest fans, says WilsonMiller CEO Al Reynolds. "Fermin cares deeply for all of WilsonMiller’s employees, and treats them just like they are part of his extended family with both his words and his actions. He’s also extremely humble and never focuses attention on his own extraordinary achievements," says Reynolds. "He leads by example rather than edict, and he takes his greatest pride in the accomplishments of those he’s helped along the way, such as when a young person receives a promotion, their professional license or is recognized as young engineer of the year by a professional society, as he was recognized early in his career."

"Though civil engineering is my profession and my love," Diaz says, "my job requires me to be a businessman, and allows me to help create programs to assist young people through their education and into leadership roles."

His peers in the Florida Engineering Society and the Florida Institute of Consulting Engineers honored him recently for mentoring and providing opportunities for young engineers—his "most humbling experience," Diaz says.


Jerry Conti, president, Sunbelt Blue Moon Printing
Though she’d known him only 10 days, it didn’t take Rene Conti long to decide to marry Jerry Conti. "He invited me to come with him for a little birthday gathering thrown for him by ‘a few’ friends. There had to be 75 people. That’s the kind of friend Jerry is."

When Jerry arrived in Naples in the early 1980s and bought a small butcher shop and deli, "I didn’t know a lamb chop from a karate chop," he says, laughing. But Conti Market built its business because people liked Jerry Conti, and that’s been true in his businesses that followed, including his current printing company, recently renamed Sunbelt Blue Moon Printing.

"People want to be around him, to follow him," says Naples jeweler Erikka Thalheimer. "I don’t want to say he’s a rare person, because I believe people are good, but sometimes you have to extract it; Jerry wears his heart on his sleeve. If there’s a tree to plant, he’s not standing there telling you to dig a hole; he’s the one with the shovel, digging the hole."

"So many of the people who have been around a long time, who worked their way to success and know what it took, are the ones who turn around and help people coming up behind them," says longtime Naples real estate executive R. Scott Cameron. "Jerry Conti is a perfect example."

"He’s the one who brought The American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life to Southwest Florida," says Kathy Nicklaus, executive director of the Cancer Alliance of Naples. "He inspired others to get involved and was the driving force behind its success."

Thalheimer recalls the time he enlisted friends to gather furniture for a cancer patient and her elderly father who had been evicted from their home. With nowhere to turn, they told Jerry they planned to take their own lives. "I saw him cry over those people. He poured his whole self into finding them a place to live," says Thalheimer.

It’s the little things, too, says Naples public relations executive Dolly Roberts. "When we moved our office out into the country, Jerry got a truck and helped load our furniture. When we arrived, he spotted a big rock and said, ‘You know what? Your logo would look great on that rock. Let me ask my wife if she’ll paint it on for you.’" (She did.)

"Jerry does the right things for the right reasons," says Roberts. "He never stops thinking about what would make other people happy."