Assistant county engineer to retire after 33 years of humble service to Flagler County residents

Palm Coast Observer
Your Town

History is both enduring and retiring. Richard Gordon isn’t a household name in Flagler County – he never wanted it to be.

But the assistant county engineer of 33 years, who started with Flagler County on Aug. 8, 1988, will work his last day on Sept. 3. He’s left his mark on a community he helped raise from one of family homesteads and a single traffic signal to what it is today – one of the most popular and fastest growing in the nation.

“When Richard Gordon and his wife, Shelley, moved to Flagler County over 40 years ago, the area was mostly swampy, wooded, wild Florida scrub with dirt roads, and farmland,” said Project Manager Amy Stroger, who has worked with Gordon for 21 years. “Palm Coast was little more than an idea that existed on paper. He first worked in the county for ITT (for 12 years), and Richard continued to do the work in Flagler County to guide development, as well as ensure that the public infrastructure needs kept pace with the rapidly increasing demand.”

The full list of design and construction projects that Gordon has worked on would be tough to enumerate.

“One would be hard pressed to find anything in Flagler County that was developed, planned, or constructed that Richard Gordon hasn’t had a hand in,” said County Engineer Faith Alkhatib, who has worked with Gordon more than 18 years. “Richard’s colleagues and coworkers rely on his knowledge and his recollection of the intricacies, events, agreements, and technical details that are the backbone upon which this community is built.”

A short list of the local projects Gordon has worked on includes:

the Main Branch Library in Palm Coast;
the widening of Belle Terre Parkway;
Matanzas Woods Parkway and the Interstate 95 interchange;
the Old Kings Road Extension;
the original Sheriff’s Inmate Facility;
he new expanded jail facility;
the Airport Control Tower;
the five new bridges on County Road 305;
the Marineland Acres Drainage backbone;
the Flagler County Government Complex;
seawall construction;
and, dunes restoration and hurricane recovery projects.

Gordon has always been reticent to talk about himself, but his wife of 50 years is not. In a 2015 interview, she describe him as truthful to a fault.

“Any hint of impropriety is unacceptable to him,” Shelley Gordon said.

She shared that her husband, pre-Flagler, also worked for Greiner Engineering in Tampa in quality control, and oversaw the building of the Space Shuttle runway.

What Richard Gordon will say of his own career is expressed in a 17-syllabel haiku:

There’s nothing to say

I would always do my best

For our residents.

“Richard Gordon’s institutional knowledge and expertise will be greatly missed,” Alkhatib said. “His technical knowledge, experience, wisdom, and advice are respected by colleagues both within Flagler County Government, as well as outside of the organization.”