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- Orlando Sentinel Start
January 26, 1973
Walter C. Bass, City Father
(Includes Picture)
When Walter C. Bass came to Orlando in 1932 the number of people in town would not have filled an expanded Tangerine Bowl. But to Mr. Bass, who was born and reared in Kissimmee, Orlando’s 30,000 citizens represented a city and he set about becoming a part of it.
He worked in a meat market until he opened his own grocery store on the corner of South Street and Delaney Avenue. He bought the Astor Hotel which later became the Bass Hotel and which thrived until it was demolished to make room for the towering CAN building. And as the years went by he became affiliated with most of Orlando’s civic organizations, working tirelessly for BGen White Raceway, Fairview Park and the Central Florida Fair.
His most notable contribution to his adopted city, however, came during the three year period from 1951-53 when he served as a city commissioner. Mr. Bass missed only one meeting during his term of office and had a share in laying a foundation for the progress that was to come.
As the city grew Mr. Bass liked to reminisce about his youth in Kissimmee and the days when he and his father hunted their foraging cows between Kenansville and New Smyrna Beach.
He was a pioneer who never outgrew his love of the land yet never resented the changes brought by growth. And he gave of himself unselfishly to make the growth benefit all.
Walter Bass was a city father in the truest sense of the word.
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