Community Legacy

SARASOTA — In 1984, Mary Fran Carroll traded her white gloves and business suit for cowboy boots and a vision to show the world that life existed east of Interstate 75.

The Chicago businesswoman began her work as the first CEO of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, then a struggling agricultural operation.

But tasked with making the company profitable and sustainable for future generations, Carroll cast her vision for what the 30,000-acre property could become: a master-planned development that was more than houses and roads; she wanted to build a community.

And in Lakewood Ranch, she did just that.

“Her fingerprints are all over the place,” said Rex Jensen, president and CEO of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, developer of Lakewood Ranch. “Before I came on board (in 1990), she’d done a lot of what I’d call preparation of the community for what was going to happen. She really set the tone for Lakewood Ranch.”
Carroll, the founding CEO of SMR, died March 24 in her home at The Glenridge on Palmer Ranch. She was 92.

Friends describe her as positive, loyal, outgoing, vibrant, engaging and upfront; she was a strong leader and a fiercely loyal friend who had an “unforgettable” laugh and wonderful sense of humor.

“She’s a legend, really, in our community and certainly for the beginnings of Lakewood Ranch,” said John Swart, who worked under Carroll as president of Lakewood Ranch Commercial Realty from 1996 to 2008. “She’s one of my most favorite people in the whole world. She was always a kind and respectful person.”

The Glenridge’s CEO Jim Cater adds: “I believe Mary Fran loved blazing trails — taking things from infancy to three or four levels up. She was a fearless leader. To her, action was eloquence.”

Carroll, who was born Jan. 24, 1922 — the same year the Uihlein family acquired the property now known as Lakewood Ranch — was an only child who graduated with a master’s degree in 1943 from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. She traveled Europe after graduating and held several jobs before joining in The Northern Trust Co.’s Family Business Division, which Carroll considered the start of her business career, in 1967.

Northern Trust’s Phil Delaney, of Sarasota, met Carroll in the late 1970s, at which time Carroll served as vice president and manager of Northern Trust’s Family Business Division. In that role, she served as trustee and manager of client non-financial assets, such as private companies, oil and gas interests and other real estate holdings.

“This complex role required a very sharp intellect and an out-of-the-box mindset,” Delaney said. “She was one of the highest-ranking female managers at Northern Trust at the time, and she had earned a sterling reputation in Chicago banking and business circles.”

Carroll applied her business acumen to SMR’s operations starting in 1980, after a prominent landowner visited her office at Northern Trust Co., in Chicago, for her expertise.

Following that visit, she traveled to the 30,000-acre property in eastern Manatee County dressed causally by Northern Trust’s standards, but not casually enough for the seven ranch families who, together, owned the property. They made her wear cowboy boots to the family meeting that ultimately led to her appointment as chairwoman of the board of directors that year and to her becoming SMR’s CEO and president in 1984, following her retirement from Northern Trust.

“Her initial focus was to bring good business sense to the ranch, whether it was the agriculture or the mining,” said John Clarke, who Carroll hired to work with SMR in 1984, initially as a consultant, to revive SMR’s agricultural operations.

At the same time, Carroll saw the development of nearby communities and began casting a grander vision for the property’s future.

“We weren’t in the middle of the Sahara Desert anymore,” Carroll told the East County Observer in an October 2010 interview. “That led me to development.”

In December 1989, Carroll’s vision came to fruition with the approval of the Cypress Banks development of regional impact, an area that now includes some of Lakewood Ranch’s original communities — Summerfield and Riverwalk. She and her team used the economic downturn in the late 1980s to explore other master-planned communities around the country.

They applied what they learned — choosing to develop the property holistically — when they broke ground on their communities in 1994 and began home sales in 1995.

Carroll led the charge in 1989 for SMR to build the Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park, a 1,273-acre campus-style business park located east of I-75 and south of University Parkway.

Despite the reluctance of Sarasota County commissioners, Carroll was determined to get the business park approved. She strode up to the podium in the commission chambers wearing a purple dress to match the “purple blob” representing the property on a map.

“Commissioners were so impressed with the dress, they voted unanimously to approve the park,” said Clarke, who formally joined SMR in 1989.

Today, the corporate park and Lakewood Ranch, in total, boast more than 1,200 businesses.

“She could talk with the chamber of commerce, the head of Northern Trust Bank and still mix with the farmers and ranchers out on the ranch,” Clarke said. “She was able to walk across different worlds, and she could mix all of them. Bringing people together was one of her defining abilities.”

Carroll used that skill and her keen business sense to help local nonprofits, as well. Over the years, she served as chairwoman — or chairman, as Carroll preferred — for organizations such as The Sarasota Community Foundation, Argus Foundation, Lighthouse for the Blind and Manatee Memorial Hospital.

Janice Felski, former executive director for Lighthouse for the Blind, said Carroll taught her how to simplify decisions.

“You couldn’t come to her without knowing clearly how to present any issue,” Felski said. “She wanted to know all the facts, numbers, people and supplies.

“She was very open, but very clear that you had to be ready to present everything and reasons,” she said. “What did you think you needed to do and why? Then, she would take it to the board.”

Jensen called her “a force of nature.”

“She didn’t have a reverse gear,” he said.

Jensen attributes the success of Lakewood Ranch’s development not only to Carroll’s vision and perseverance, but also to her commitment for pursuing quality and avoiding shortcuts in business.
“That’s really how we survived the downturn,” he said.

During her years with SMR, from which she retired in 1997, Carroll accumulated plaques for groundbreakings of Lakewood Ranch High School, Lakewood Ranch Medical Center and others.

But, she was particularly proud when a bridge on Lorraine Road was named in her honor. Carroll told the East County Observer that the accomplishment was “validation” for her efforts in Lakewood Ranch.

In a November 2008 interview with the East County Observer, Carroll said watching her plans for Lakewood Ranch develop from ideas on paper into a thriving community was the “experience of a lifetime.”

“God, I have to be proud,” she said.

A Mass for Carroll was held April 2. Memorial donations may be made to the Sarasota Community Foundation.

Nolan Peterson contributed to this report.

The Glenridge
Aside from her work out east, Carroll was instrumental in developing The Glenridge on Palmer Ranch and served as its first chairwoman of the board. Because of her work with helping plan the community, its skilled nursing center, The Carroll Center, is named in her honor.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected]