Mr Andrew N. Serros

Orlando history has lost a champion. Andy Serros, one of the founders of Orlando Remembered and a gregarious and passionate proponent of preserving the history of pre-Disney Orlando, died Monday after a short illness. He was 85. Friends and family remembered Serros as the driving force for Orlando Remembered, a group dedicated to preserving the memories of "The City Beautiful," primarily between 1930 and 1950. "What a tremendous, tremendous loss for this community," said Sara Van Arsdel, director of the Orange County Regional History Center. "He told such great stories about our past and was full of humor and interest." Serros' enthusiasm was contagious, Van Arsdel said. "It was difficult to say no to Andy," she said. His recent hospitalization and decline weighed heavily on her, she said. "I was dreading getting the call about Andy," she said. "He was one of those people you don't ever want to hear that about. He was just too wonderful a person." Family members said Serros brought the passion and devotion he showed for Orlando Remembered to every aspect of his life. "Passion -- that's the perfect word to describe his life," said his son, Victor Serros of Maitland. "With his faith, his wife, his children, his grandchildren or the person he just met." His eldest of five daughters, Marianne Lyon of Richmond, Va., said her father looked for the best in everyone and made everyone feel special. Each of his 16 grandchildren believed they were his "special one," she said. He showed the same passion for his marriage of almost 57 years. "He had a marriage the rest of us can only dream about," Lyon said, adding he would always refer to his wife as "my dear Helen." His accomplishments as a civic leader with the Kiwanis and Elks clubs were numerous, whether raising money to build Mercy Hospital or help pay for the floral clock at Harry P. Leu Gardens in the 1960s or helping his father, Nick Serros, and others found the Tangerine Bowl in 1947. Serros was passionate about the University of Florida and was the consummate booster. His personalized license tag proclaimed, GTR 4EVR. Victor Serros said he still runs into former Gator football players who remember fondly the letters of encouragement his father would write them. They would be distributed in the Gator locker room before the games, he said. Serros also created the Old Timers Club and limited membership to people who had lived in Orlando for 65 years running. It drew hundreds of members, his son said. Serros recently started sharing stories with the history center as part of an oral history project, said Tana Porter, the research librarian. True to form, he was the one who contacted Porter about sharing his stories, asking when she could schedule him. One memory that stands out was his personal recollection when he was 16 of a tense standoff between a priest at St. James Catholic Church and members of the Ku Klux Klan about 1938. After planting a burning cross in front of the rectory, one hooded klansman called out the priest. The priest later told Serros he called the man by name and challenged him to take off the hood and fight like a man. The klansman turned and told the others, "We've got the wrong guy. Let's get out of here." In addition to his wife, son and daughter, Serros is survived by four other daughters, Nancy Carrell of Cincinnati, Carolyn Mullin of Oviedo, and Shirley Welch and Joanne C. Serros of Maitland; brother Robert of Orlando; 16 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Arrangements are by Baldwin-Fairchild Funeral Home, Ivanhoe Chapel.