In loving memory of an amazing Man, Visionary, and Mentor
Harold P. Nowlon
‘Sonny’
Harold P. (Sonny) Nowlon joined the Eustis Gun Club on March 1, 2004, and enjoyed a
multitude of shooting disciplines for the next five years.
Early in 2010 it was becoming apparent to him that something was not quite right with the
management and finances of the Club. He began to see discrepancies in the way the incoming funds were handled, noted that the operating officers appeared to be trading positions on a regular basis to maintain control and saw major problems with the many construction projects that had been done and were under construction. It appeared that some members of the Club who tried to interfere with the Officers were dismissed from Club membership without proper procedures.
In the fall of that year he decided to run for the Vice President position, and he won. He began questioning the finances and management practices of the Board and was pressured to resign. At the same time his wife of many years was very ill and was soon to pass away. He therefore made the decision to resign.
Late in 2012, after a personally very difficult time, Sonny re emerged at the Club, began
shooting and again took up the task of investigating and making known to the members how the Club was being mismanaged. He ran for President and encouraged others whom he thought to be honest to run for other positions. His campaign was based on the fact that this was a “Members Club’ and he intended to see that it would be run that way. After a short campaign and the largest turnout of members for a general election in the Club’s history he won the election. This was just the beginning of many battles that he fought to save the Club from certain financial and ethical disasters.
After restoring the Board of Directors as the governing body of the Club he began his work. Sonny’s next challenge arrived when he found out that there was very little money in the treasury. He identified the numerous financial discrepancies, removed offenders and made arrangements to apply for a personal loan to meet payroll. Fortunately, early in the spring, membership renewals started coming in and a loan was not necessary.
At the same time an additional challenge emerged. A lawsuit was filed by the owners of the adjacent property in an attempt to close the Club and put it out of business. Response to this took a tremendous amount of time dealing with the Club’s lawyer, taking and attending depositions, meeting with County representatives and going to court. Sonny’s attention to this problem with experience, knowledge, determination and professionalism was the primary reason he prevailed. The successful conclusion to this attack took two years.
Also, at the same time Sonny was confronted with the problems of dealing with the Lake
County Planning and Zoning department regarding the illegal activities involved with the
construction projects undertaken by the previous Club administration. Building permits were not obtained, construction was not up to code, variances were not applied for and it was extremely difficult to find a contractor who was willing to deal with all these problems. The Club was being fined on a daily basis for these violations. It took Sonny twenty-six months of constant contact with County officials and a generous contractor to finally resolve these problems and mitigate the fines.
The Eustis Gun Club, Inc. has emerged from disaster and has become a financially healthy, extremely popular and properly managed Club. This would not have occurred had it not been for Mr. Harold P. (Sonny) Nowlon.
