Theodore Thomas Gore

Mr. Gore, a Fort Lauderdale snowbird who also lived in Virginia, was 88.

"He was a great dad, he was a great husband and he loved the newspaper business," said his son Peter Gore. "He loved Fort Lauderdale. He did a lot of reflecting of the early days of Fort Lauderdale."

Mr. Gore was born in 1925 in Oak Park, Ill., to Gov. Robert Hayes "R.H." and Lorena Gore. The family lived for a short time in San Juan after his father was appointed territorial governor by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Even though he was forced to resign, he was forever known as the Governor.

Mr. Gore attended Fort Lauderdale High School and then enlisted in the Air Force. He served in World War II and was stationed in England for most of his service. After the military, Mr. Gore attended the University of Notre Dame with the intention to become a priest.

The Governor, however, had a different plan. He had a buddy he knew from an orchid society and that buddy had a daughter, Marion Patterson, who lived in New Jersey.

"The two fathers conspired to get their kids together," Peter Gore said, and arranged for Marion to stay at a beach club the Governor owned where Mr. Gore was working the front desk while on break during his junior year of college.

Mr. Gore left the seminary school and graduated in 1950 with a degree in business administration. When he returned to Fort Lauderdale, he married Marion in an orchid-themed wedding. Together, they raised six children.

"Growing up in Fort Lauderdale the city remained close to his heart, witnessing its evolution from a sleepy enclave where Las Olas Boulevard and A1A were dirt roads to the tropical metropolis that it is today," said Peter Gore. "A favorite pastime was to watch from his living room the ships arrive and depart from Port Everglades."

After graduation, Mr. Gore started working in the pressroom of the Fort Lauderdale newspaper. His father had bought the Daily News and Evening Sentinel during a visit to Fort Lauderdale in 1929 for $75,000 and changed the paper's name to the Fort Lauderdale Daily News. The name was changed to the Fort Lauderdale News in 1953.

The Governor bought other Florida newspapers, including the Pompano Beach Sun, which later became the Sun-Sentinel and eventually merged with the Fort Lauderdale News. The senior Gore sold his newspapers to Tribune Company of Chicago for $18 million in 1963.

The Gore family also owned several businesses in South Florida, including the Gore Nursery. In 2008, the Gore Nursery property was sold to the Fort Lauderdale Parks and Recreation Division.

Mr. Gore is pre-deceased by his son Philip Gore. In addition to his son Peter Gore, of Williamsburg, Va., and his wife Marion, Mr. Gore is survived by four other children: Theodore T. Gore Jr., of Athens, Ga.; Janet Olson, of Townsend, Tenn.; Guy Gore, of Lighthouse Point, and Loren Grimes of Williamsburg; 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be 1 p.m. Friday, followed by a service at 3 p.m., at Kraeer-Fairchild Funeral Home, 4061 N. Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale (954) 565-5591.