DAYTONA BEACH — "Gator" Bert Reames, a longtime Daytona Beach area business leader whose career and contributions to the community here spanned more than seven decades, died at his Ormond Beach home on Wednesday evening. He was 94.
"Bert is truly an iconic figure. There was no one who came to this town and was active in this community in the last 70 years that Bert didn't touch in some way," said Charlie Lydecker, the chairman and CEO of Foundation Risk Partners which acquired Reames' firm, Reames Employee Benefits Solutions, in 2017.
Reames was also well-known for his always-kind but sometimes politically incorrect sense of humor, which for years made him a must-see event speaker.