Memorial service is Saturday for former mayor, 'Capt. Bob' Flood
BY PAM GREENE STAFF WRITER

BOB FLOOD

Robert W. "Capt. Bob" Flood of Port Aransas died Sunday, Oct. 7, 2007, at home with his family at his side after a brief illness. He was 75.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, Oct. 13, at 10 a.m., at the Patsy Jones Amphitheater in Roberts Point Park. Come dressed "island casual" in Capt. Bob tradition.

Flood was born Oct. 28, 1931, in Mount Kisco, N. Y.

He saw combat in the Korean War and Vietnam conflict while serving in the U.S. Navy. Flood decided to move to Port Aransas when he retired from the Navy after seeing the place for the first time while stationed at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. He was 21 at the time and 18 years away from retirement. His love of fishing drew him here.

When Flood retired from the Navy in 1970, he went from being a chief in the U.S. Navy to being a pleasure boat captain in a short time. He settled first in Corpus Christi where he was skipper of the Capt. Clark and Buccaneer sight-seeing and party fishing boats.

Two years later, he "finally came home", as he put it, when he moved to Port Aransas, where he lived the rest of his life.

Flood joined the Boatmen in 1974 and served as president of the organization six or seven times. He also served as vice-president four times and was a perennial member of the board of directors. He was named Boatman of the Year in 1992 and was inducted to the Boatmen Hall of Fame in 1999.

Flood served as mayor of Port Aransas from 1981 to 1982. He had been elected to the city council and was chosen as mayor pro-tem. He had been on the council for only a few months when then Mayor Dennis Dreyer died while in office. Flood served out the unexpired mayoral term.

Flood spoke about his time on the council and as mayor to South Jetty reporter Dan Parker in July of this year. According to Flood, it was a hairy time in the city's past and Port Aransas truly was a quaint fishing village at that time.

He said, "We started the homerule that got our city manager, Gus Pappas. He didn't get along with the powers that be. We were trying to upgrade the city, and we got a lot of: 'Well, Grandpa didn't have it, so we don't need it.' But, eventually, they started turning our way. We showed them the plans for the streets and the sidewalks. We had already worked on the (city) marina, got it building up. We had moved from the old (city hall building) - where the chamber of commerce is now, it used to be city hall - and we went into the new building. Got a bigger staff. The whole 10 yards. We started turning into the city before the people were really ready for it, and it took all the way through my two years and into (the mayoral administration of) Charlie Brown. … It turned out alright."

A native of the Lakes Country of New York State, Flood dipped hooks in waters all over the world. In an interview with South Jetty reporter Carolyn Richards in 1999, he spoke of fishing in Hong Kong harbor, using cut up hot dogs for bait and catching some strange-looking fish. The native people clamored for his catch - whatever it was. As a boat captain, Flood was able to get and give pleasure as he took anglers to where fish were biting, said a spokesman from Woody's Sports Center where he spent time on the porch swapping fish tales with other long-time fishermen.

He is survived his wife, MaryAnn of Port Aransas; four daughters, Cheryl (Chris) Vedrines of New Iberia, La., Bobbie (Peter) Mindermann of Port Aransas, Vickie (Bruce) Gamble of New Iberia and Kimberly (Scott) Garrison of Port Aransas; a son, Andy (Amy) Flood of Port Aransas; seven granddaughters, Maliana, Allison, Hannah, Kaitlyn, Jocelyn, Gracey and Julia; and two great-granddaughters, Shaien and Evie.