Gordon Dennis Tucker

Gordon Dennis Tucker,56, of Sarasota, FL had a heart attack and was put on life support shortly therafter. After five days, on October 10, 2018 at 1:25pm, he passed away in Martin Memorial South Hospital, surrounded by loved ones.

Gordon was the youngest of three children, his oldest brother being Willie and middle sister, Catie, were born to Dr. Ross Tucker and Judy Tucker. He graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Social Science, but never really pursued a career that would require those skills. Gordon, being the creative genius he was, instead began a tile company in West Palm Beach, FL at the age of 26. He did very well for himself, working with some of his very best friends, including but not limited to Mark Stewart. While out enjoying a few drinks with his friends, he met Christina Tucker, whom later became his wife and mother of his children, Ross Tucker II and Judy Tucker II. After buying a piece of property on Leighton Farms Road in Palm City, FL, Gordon befriended a family down the road, the Pressley’s. Their youngest child, Donny, became not only a good friend of Gordon’s but they developed somewhat of a father and son relationship. While Christina and Gordon relentlessly worked at fixing up their 8 acre property in Palm City, this period of time was known by many as Gordon’s “best” and favorite years. During his marriage to Christina, she claims that he never drank, until there was a tragic accident one night involving his very good friend, Cecil. That night was the first night Christina saw him drink, and it wasn’t the last. While keeping his bad habit somewhat under control, he completed overseeing and personally taking part in the construction of the two story home in the back of the property, known as “The Tucker House”. His habits had escalated to the point at which his wife, Christina, had felt compelled to divorce him. After their divorce in 1999, Gordon opened a cabinet company, which was very successful. He had many friends and was a good father even with the dysfunction going on around him.

In 2004, he bought an old church and completely renovated it into a wonderful home. After the hurricanes hit, he taught himself to become an extremely talented paralegal, working for his brother, Willie. During this time, those two made an exceptional team, working together for about 5 years until his brother, Willie, had a tragic stroke which left him physically functional, but unable to continue his law work. This made it difficult for Gordon to bounce back as Willie had become not only his best teammate, but had also become his best friend. Gordon continued to work as a paralegal here and there, but then a case had fallen into his lap in 2018. The case involved a dog kennel in Palm City, FL, in which he also opted to help completely restructure its business plan as well as renovate the facilities. Within five weeks, the dog kennel had become nothing like it was before Gordon arrived. Unfortunately, as things began to turn around for Gordon, his passing had occurred, leaving us here to wonder what could have been.

Amongst the countless, priceless lessons that he had enlightened to me, most importantly Gordon taught me how to truly love thy neighbor. He was not perfect, as we know none of us are; but he was undoubtedly ingenious and incredibly insightful. He was the man who I would call when I needed to be lifted up, he was the man I would call when I needed a kick in the butt, he was the man I would call when I felt overwhelmed and most importantly he was the man I wanted to be with to LAUGH. He was so loving, funny, and generous with whatever it was he had (time, money, love, etc.). I wish it was possible to portray the positively complex man he was in words, but that is a task unable to be completed by any man.

Gordon was my Father, my coach, my very best friend. He will be missed dearly and my life without him seemingly will never have the same luster. Gordon Dennis Tucker, I love you.