Celebrating Pine Islanders: Cliff Simer
Cliff Simer said he would describe himself as a caring person who wears his heart on his sleeve, although, at times, he feels he says things folks might not want to, but may need to hear.
“I’m somebody who would give the shirt off their back to a stranger, and never ask for help. I’m the worst in the world about asking for help if I need help with something,” Simer said.
What led him to become a captain of 33 years in the fire service, he said, is that desire to help or care for someone. That’s what it’s about for him, he shared.
“I ask a lot of these young guys why they wanted to get into the fire service. If they say money, then I tell them they got into the wrong profession because that’s not a fireman. A fireman is somebody that wants to help somebody. If you’re driving down the road and you see a little old lady or a little old man struggling to change a tire on the side of the road, I ask if they were the kind of guy who’d stop and help them. If they say yes, I say OK. That’s what it’s about to me,” Simer said.
His original, immediate family moved here from Alabama in 1980 when Simer was still a child. He explained that anyone who’s been on the island for 25 years or so likely knows his parents, since they owned Cliff’s Auto Parts and Repairs, which he said was one of the only auto repair shops on Pine Island.
“There was Russell’s, that was first and then there was my dad — Center Auto — and then there was one in St. James. My dad had the only tow truck on the island for a long time,” Simer said.
As far as contributions to Pine Island, he said he feels the only real offerings he’s made have come by way of multiple relationships built from many conversations he’s had over the years.
“It’s really about the Pine Island community. I guess I’ve always tried to be here for people if they need anything,” Simer said.
Tasked with the explanation of the island to a stranger, he said he would likely reach back to the days when he moved here as a boy in the 1980s and describe it as a little fishing community, which he sees now changing to a retirement lifestyle.
“More and more people are coming here to retire and enjoy what they’ve moved away from,” Simer said.
If there was only one wish granted to Simer for all of Pine Island, he said he would choose to never go through another hurricane again.