Conservationist extraordinaire

Guy Marwick took the helm of Silver Springs State Park’s wheelchair-accessible glass-bottom boat on Oct. 11 during an outing with Felburn Foundation board members. The foundation helped fund the vessel. [Photo by Michael Warren/Special to the Gazette]

Guy Marwick is quick to downplay his significant contributions to endeavors that have aided people and animals around the globe, including preserving precious lands from development locally and internationally.

But, on Oct. 11, during a celebration at the Silver River Museum inside Silver Springs State Park, which acknowledged Marwick’s retirement from the Felburn Foundation board, a number of people were equally as quick to recall many of his notable success stories, which includes founding the museum and serving as its first executive director.

The Silver River Museum and Environmental Education Center is a program of Marion County Public Schools and more than 10,000 students visit the campus each year. Scott Mitchell is the coordinator of the center, which also is open to the public. Mitchell welcomed event attendees to the celebration.

Among those on hand to congratulate Marwick were representatives of environmental organizations including the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida State Parks, Ellie Schiller Homossassa Springs Wildlife State Park, University of Florida/ Florida Museum of Natural History, Florida Springs Institute, Coastal Plains Institute, Florida Greenways and Trails, Alachua Conservation Trust, Conservation Florida, Silver Springs Sandhill Project, Horse Farms Forever, Putnam Land Conservancy, The Conservation Fund, Columbia Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, North Florida Land Trust, Big Waters Land Trust, Horse Protection Association of Florida and the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation.

“This more than I deserve. I’m shocked and pleasantly surprised. It’s nice to see so many friends and people we have worked with over the years. It’s really over the top,” Marwick said as he surveyed the large number of attendees, which included his wife, Pat, and other family members.

When asked about some of his more notable successes through the Felburn Foundation, Marwick started with, “When we helped to buy Three Sisters Springs at Crystal River and the Indian Lakes State Forest.”

“I like land acquisition. I think when we get land preserved and protected, we really do that for the long run. Sometimes the projects you do are really nice and really good, but the things that happen in perpetuity, that’s what is really wonderful,” he said.

One of those projects “in perpetuity” was known as the Avatar project, which ended with the state purchasing a local 4,400-acre plus property in November 2006 that is now the Indian Lakes State Forest in northeast Marion County.

“What people don’t realize is that started here with one phone call to the vice president of Avatar,” Marwick said, pointing to a wall of the museum. “I said, ‘Would you ever consider selling it?’ He said, “We’re getting ready to put the roads in. We’re vested for 10,000 houses. But I know it’s beautiful; it would make a wonderful park.’ And I said, “So would you take an offer from the state?’ He said, ‘Well we’re a business, we’re always open.’ I said, ‘So I take that as a yes.’ And I hung up and called Jim McFarland, and I said, ‘Jim, put together a proposal.’ And the proposal flew and four years later the state spent $76 million and bought it.”

“The purchase of the 4,471 acres north of the park along County Line 35, which also includes Indian Lake, is a financial partnership between DEP, The Nature Conservancy and Marion County,” noted an “Ocala Star-Banner” article in 2006. “Under the agreement, DEP will pay about two thirds of the $76 million, The Nature Conservancy will pay about one-third of the bill and Marion County will kick in $2.5 million. Next year, the state will buy out The Nature Conservancy’s share, turning the property into public land.”

The Three Sisters Springs Center manages land access to Three Sisters Springs, a unit of the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, and the springs themselves are one of the only places in the world where people can swim with manatees, which flock there in cold weather.

“So many of these projects have just made me feel good that I have been able to be part of it. And people have helped… all the people in this room have helped. In different ways, they are all doing the same thing,” Marwick added. “You don’t do anything by yourself. You have to have like-minded people to help get through hurdles. And look at this room full of really good people.”

Julie Hendrix is executive administrator for the Felburn Foundation, which is based in Ocala.

“Tonight is a night to celebrate Guy Marwick, the man who has led us to where we are now in conservation and all the efforts we have supported, and we will be continuing his mission — and our mission — at the Felburn Foundation,” she said.

“Our newest director is Guy ‘Harley’ Means, joining Kemp Floyd and Larry White, and we are moving forward as we were before. We are hoping to continue the good work that we are able to help organizations like the many that are here tonight representing their causes,” Hendrix added.

“Harley Means, who is the Florida State Geologist and Director of the Florida Geological Survey, is who I chose to take my director spot. He’s really a good person and it’s just exciting for the continuity. And Scott Mitchell is doing such a great job with the museum, so it just keeps moving on,” Marwick noted.

“The museum is part of the Marion County Public Schools system and it’s a very unique and successful partnership, along with the Florida Park Service. Guy started the museum in 1991. He began in 1987, but it opened in 1991,” Mitchell told those gathered.

‘LIKE A SPRING’

Felburn Foundation board member Larry White gave a keynote speech filled with interesting information and delivered in a syrupy southern drawl, with lots of witty bon mots.

“We are here to celebrate and honor Guy Marwick for 16 years on the board and as executive director of the Felburn Foundation but first let me put your minds at ease. The Felburn Foundation is a grant making private foundation. As such, we do not solicit contributions, so that means you won’t be asked to make any donations, at least not by us. I don’t know, however, what any characters in this crowd might ask of you,” White said in his opening remarks.

White then remarked that Mitchell had given an excellent account of the Felburn Foundation in a 2022 edition of “Ocala Style” magazine, the “Gazette’s” sister publication.

In that column, Mitchell noted that, “The Felburn Foundation is a small charitable nonprofit with a big impact. Although the foundation is not widely known, you’ve likely benefited from a project they have supported at some point in your travels.”

Phil Felburn was a successful businessman and philanthropist who believed in the preservation of natural resources and saw education as the key to meeting this goal. He established the foundation in 1978. Management was later passed to his daughter Ellie Schiller, who actively funded many projects until her passing in 2009. Guy Marwick assumed the role of executive director. He works with Larry White, Kemp Floyd and Julie Hendrix. The team manages investments with the skill of a surgeon and does amazing things with the interest, Mitchell wrote.

“The foundation operates on three basic beliefs: acquire, protect and perpetually maintain areas of natural significance; provide educational facilities and research funds in nature related fields; and create an interest in the public toward the protection of sensitive and endangered natural areas,” he noted.

White told the crowd that one of the best things he ever did for the foundation was to put in place a mechanism for the board members to name their own successors.

“And one of the best things Ellie Schiller did was to name Guy Marwick to take her place,” White stated. “For decades before that, Guy had been an environmental activist, a science teacher and an accomplished collector of historic and pre-historic artifacts. He instantly brought to the foundation a wealth of scientific and natural history knowledge, environmental expertise and practical and administrative skills. For the Felburn Foundation, it was a jackpot when Guy joined us.”

White outlined that Phil Felburn had conserved property by acquiring it, which included waterfalls in North and South Carolina, springs in Kentucky, a cave in Georgia and 600 acres of undeveloped marshlands west of Yankeetown, accessible only by water.

“It quickly became clear that Guy Marwick is hands on. By boat, he personally posted no trespassing signs on the islands and engaged Florida Wildlife folks to keep an eye on things out there. He sought the necessary safety signage at the waterfall in South Carolina, which gets a lot of public use, and personally cleared invasive plants from those Kentucky springs, chest deep in the water, looking to astonished onlookers like some bizarre swamp creature,” White offered.

“He is tireless, and he follows up. Whether gathering information for a grant application or following up to make sure recipients do what they say they will do or monitoring the foundation’s investments, Guy doesn’t just come in and then leave things to chance, he follows up. And Guy is a relationship builder,” White added.

“The Felburn Foundation has helped land trusts, local, national and international small and large, through the purchase and protection of land. We have extensively supported the preservation of Florida’s springs, restoration of long-leaf pine forests, archaeological digs in Florida and South Carolina,” White explained. “The foundation has supported the protection, rehabilitation and rescue of manatees, Florida panthers and black bears, whooping cranes, sandhill cranes, whales off the coast of Norway, elephants, rhinos and bonobos in Africa, Bengal tigers in Asia, snow leopards in Tibet, trumpeter swans, condors, striped newts and endangered turtles, as well as abandoned, neglected or abused horses, big cats and chimpanzees. And there’s been a lot more. And Guy Marwick has been at the heart of it all. Tireless. Steadfast. Committed. Dedicated.”

White said the Felburn Foundation has made grants totaling “in the neighborhood of $30 million.”

“And it has kind of been our test for success, that we can be proud of many of the things which we have helped make happen, which many of you have made happen,” White said, waving his hand around the room.

“Not long ago, something I heard from the book of Isaiah had me thinking of Guy: The Lord is urging his people to end injustice, oppression and malice, and provide for the needy. If you do those things, you will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail,” White continued. “Springs have been Guy’s passion nearly all his life, and, in the process, I think he has taken on something of the character of springs or maybe he identifies with springs as reflecting his own values. Either way, like springs, Guy is steady, constant, ongoing, persistent, unfailing.”

White then called Floyd, Means and Hendrix to the podium to present a plaque to Marwick.

“I don’t know what to say. Thank you all for being here. It’s been a pleasure,” Marwick told the crowd.

NEXT UP?

As for what Marwick might be doing with his spare time now, maintaining physical fitness may be at the top of the list. After all, he recently set a new strict curl weightlifting world record at 91 pounds in the 80+ age category.

“The contest was in Tampa and the event I entered and won was a strict curl competition. Three judges make sure your back maintains contact with the wall. The contest was put on by the Raw Power Lifting Federation,” Marwick explained in a text message, adding that he has been lifting weights “off and on since college.”

To learn more about the Felburn Foundation, email Hendrix at [email protected] or call (352) 368-6686.

Guy Marwick retirement event

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