KMI left a legacy

VENICE - In the winter of 1933, when city fortunes were sagging along with the finances of its corporate founder, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Sarasota County's first military school arrived to help boost this town's fortunes.  The academy that became the Kentucky Military Institute had been wintering in Florida since about 1906, when it began sending its cadets to the east coast town of Eau Gallie, near present-day Melbourne.  The school, which counts seven Civil War generals as former cadets, was founded in 1845 by Col. Robert T.P. Allen, a West Point graduate and veteran of the Seminole War.  Other famous alumni include early Hollywood hunk Victor Mature and Jim Backus, who later played Thurston Howell III on "Gilligan's Island." Comic actor Fred Willard, who appeared in Christopher Guest's "Best of Show" and "Waiting for Guffman," attended school at KMI as well.  Fred Francis, the owner of BW Francis and B&B Bootery Inc. at 311 W. Venice Ave., attended KMI as a family tradition. His father, Bob Francis, was a member of the first class to come to Venice.  "I came from a county in Kentucky with a very poor school system," said Francis, 64. "It got me out of that into one with classrooms of 15 and 16 students.  "It was a better environment for learning too, with a lot of after hour help from teachers and other faculty members too," he added.

Col. Charles B. Richmond, who was part of a partnership that pulled the school out of bankruptcy in the 1930s, began KMI's association with Venice, striking a deal to lease both the San Marco Hotel on Tampa Avenue and the Venice Hotel on Nassau Street.  The school nearly ended up on Longboat Key, according to Charles A. Hodgin, son of longtime KMI commandant Col. Charles E. Hodgin Jr., who died at age 95 in 1997.  The school had been offered the use of the incomplete John Ringling Hotel on Longboat Key if KMI would- finish the construction, but it proved too expensive for the military school.  Instead the school opted for Venice.  The San Marco Hotel became a dormitory; the Venice Hotel was turned into an administration and classroom building.  A contingent of 1,500 people welcomed the first group of 175 cadets when they arrived for winter session on Jan. 5,1933.  KMI was a military school with an ROTC program and some military training, but most students didn't automatically go into the service, Francis said.  The school was particularly well known locally for its winning teams in baseball, basketball, tennis, golf, football and wrestling. KMI competed with high school, prep school and junior college teams from Fort Myers to St. Petersburg to Lakeland.