1639-37 Politics WED AUG 21 1991 ED: FINAL
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 1B LENGTH: 20 .56" MEDIUM
ILLUST: photo: Harry PLISSNER
SOURCE: LYDIA MARTIN Herald Staff Writer
DATELINE:
MEMO:
LONGTIME BEACH ACTIVIST HARRY PLISSNER DIES
By the time Harry Plissner was 47 , he had made enough money running
penny arcades, importing lobster and shrimp and selling radio sets and
government surplus items to retire and leave chilly Baltimore for sunny Miami
Beach.
He intended to play a lot of golf . Instead he became one of the toughest
civic activists Miami Beach has ever known.
Plissner died Monday night of respiratory failure, his son Martin said.
He was 90 .
By all accounts, Plissner was a tireless fighter. Just months ago, frail
and of failing health, he attended a Miami Beach Commission meeting with his
nurse by his side to discuss the need for better fire safety in several Beach
buildings.
"He was very concerned about fire safety in hotels, " said Beach
Commissioner Bruce Singer. "Even when he became weak, he would stand there at
the podium and would not move until he was given the opportunity to speak his
mind. He was concerned about the environment, conserving energy, senior
citizens. "
In the early 1950s, Plissner filed a successful lawsuit against
virtually every Miami Beach oceanfront hotel to prevent them from building
past the high water mark and accelerating erosion of the beach.
He also engineered a successful petition campaign to put doctors on
Beach rescue vehicles. It was approved twice by voters, in 1953 and in 1971 .
Doctors were finally replaced by paramedics in 1986 because it was more cost-
effective.
"He was a unique individual, " said former Beach Mayor Malcolm Fromberg.
"He was tough and he was cantankerous, but he was also an extremely
compassionate person. He enjoyed taking up causes and was willing to follow
them through to completion, not just talk about them. If he felt there was an
injustice, he would take a leadership role. "
Plissner took a shot at Beach politics several times over the years,
running unsuccessfully for commissioner in 1953, 1957 and 1985 and as well as
mayor in 1989, when he was 88 .
He ran against the incumbent, Mayor Alex Daoud, not because he wanted
the post but because he was adamant against Daoud keeping it. He promised that
if elected mayor, he would immediately step down and let the City Commission
pick a new mayor -- providing they didn't pick Daoud. Plissner lost the race,
but received nearly 30 percent of the vote.
Plissner, who was born on New York' s Lower East Side, quit school after
the eighth grade and made millions in business.
He never let age inhibit him. At 87 and twice a widower, he married for
the third time. A year later he got a divorce, his son said.
In 1981, Plissner got 10, 000 signatures demanding a vote on whether the
Beach should buy out Florida Power & Light ' s transmission facilities and
establish its own utility. Fifty- three percent voted against it.
Miami Beach wasn' t Plissner' s only concern. In the mid- 1950s, he led a
drive to have a memorial erected at Dachau concentration camp in Germany to
honor the Jews who were killed there.
He also organized a campaign called Friendship Through Magazines in
which 120, 000 people around the country mailed their old magazines and books
to people in other countries. In 1960 , New Yorker magazine profiled Plissner
for his campaign.
Plissner lead a number of efforts that didn't gain great support. Among
them was his idea to have the city sell the bay- bottom land of Pelican
Island, off the Julia Tuttle Causeway, to high-density housing developers.
He also suggested building islands in the Atlantic Ocean to protect the
Beach from hurricanes and putting a solar pond on a tiny bay island to
experiment with using solar energy to light the Miami Beach Convention Center.
"Lately he was very fragile but he was still worried about the city, "
said Beach Commissioner Abe Resnick. "He was there until the last minute. You
have to have respect for people like him. He was not looking for any personal
benefits . He was truly dedicated. "
In addition to his son Martin, Plissner is survived by another son,
William, and six grandchildren.
A funeral service is scheduled for 9 : 30 a.m. Thursday at Riverside-
Gordon' s Miami Beach chapel, 1920 Alton Rd.
ADDED TERMS: plissner obituary
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