Early History of Big Brothers 

In 1964 our agency’s history began as Big Brothers of Hillsborough County in 1964 with the late Martin Essrig serving as the first Board President and Sidney Barrett as the first part-time Executive Director.
 
In 1967 the agency named A. “Ernie” Ortiz, Jr. as its first full-time Executive Director. Ortiz was featured on the national television program “To Tell the Truth” as the first Little Brother in the history of the Big Brother movement to have risen to the position of Executive Director of a Big Brother agency.
 
In 1973 George Katz from the National Big Brother office recognized the Tampa Big Brothers as full members after a personal review of the agency.
 
In June of 1976 Ernie Ortiz resigned after nine years of service with Big Brothers. During that time, the Tampa agency was responsible for fostering brother agencies in Pinellas, Sarasota, Orange, and Polk Counties. Also, due to the influence of the agency, the late Irvin F. Westheimber was recognized and later named the original founder of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.
 
In 1976, Hall Robinson became Executive Director and remained so until September 1, 1981 at which time Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Tampa merged.
 
The following individuals served as Board Presidents of Big Brothers of Hillsborough County: Essrig was preceded by David Tillick who served as President from 1966-67 and then Barry Cohen from 1967-68. Board Presidents following Barry Cohen included Judge Don Evans (’68-69), former Judge Charles H. Scruggs (’69-70), and Harvey Benitz (’70-71). H. Lee Moffitt served as Board President from 1972-73 followed by Lee Meister from 1973-1974 and was known as one of the agency’s greatest contributors for many years. Raymond Mead served as President from 1974-75 and James Russell served from 1975-76. 1976-77, Robert Huber; 1977-79, John Luhn; 1979-81, Donald Meng.
 
The main sources of funding for the agency during this period were the United Way, Conn Foundation, and a variety of fundraising events including walk-a-thons, garage sales, sales of programs at Rowdies soccer games, and golf tournaments.