Southwest Florida has lost an icon who spent his time working behind the scenes in construction and real estate development.
Daniel Harper, who died at 96 on April 20 following a short illness, played a role in building almost every prominent road in Lee County and pioneered mining in the southeast corridor of the county, which helped him transform dirt roads into asphalt.
After arriving in Lee County in 1952 from his native Arkansas, he began developing homes until realizing his true calling of excavating dirt to fill new home sites and excavating rock with which to build roads and make concrete block.
“Roads such as Summerlin Road, portions of U.S. 41, I-75, Colonial Boulevard, Daniels Parkway, Cypress Lake Drive, McGregor Boulevard — all of those were roads that the company built over the years,” said Ron Inge, the president of Inge and Associates who worked with Harper for more than 40 years. “Every day, all of us drive on projects that the company did.”
In 1999, Harper and colleague Quinton McNew, who died in 2014, sold their Harper Brothers company where they were the only two shareholders for $87 million. Jacksonville-based Florida Rock Industries bought the company, which had more than 300 employees and included a 3,100-acre quarry off Alico Road that is still in operation.
“He was one of the most calm, humble individuals you would ever want to meet,” Inge said of Harper. “Mr. Harper was a leader. And just by his demeanor, how he conducted himself, he commanded the respect of everyone in the room.”
Even until about two months ago, Harper still would drop by his office near Six Mile Cypress Parkway, another road his former company helped build. “Mr. Harper would come in at least once a week,” Inge said. “Get an update on what was going on — because we still have a lot of activity — and sign checks and just be a part of it. He didn’t really have any day-to-day responsibility. By the age of 96, he probably earned the right not to work on a daily basis.”
Hideaway Country Club, Bonita Bay, Brookshire, Heritage Palms, Punta Gorda Isles, large portions of Cape Coral, Sam Galloway Ford, Port LaBelle, Countryside, Berkshire and St. Charles Harbor are just some of the Southwest Florida subdivisions, cities, businesses and communities in which Harper’s construction efforts helped build.
Harper and his wife Ann, who died in 2008, founded the Daniel R. and Anne M. Harper Foundation, which supports organizations with grants to spread Christianity, support research and cure of illnesses, educate children and feed the hungry.
A World War II veteran as a member of the U.S. Navy, Harper, who earned a civil engineering degree from the University of Arkansas, later owned a Model T Ford from the same year in which he was born, 1925.
A service celebrating Harper’s life will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Redeemer Church, 8400 Cypress Lake Drive in Fort Myers.
