Prominent business family perseveres through odds, obstacles

‘Any obstacle,’ says patriarch Richard Gonzmart ‘can be overcome.’

Mark Wemple. Richard Gonzmart, 65, leads the fourth generation of his family at the helm of the family restaurant business, Columbia. Â
Mark Wemple. Richard Gonzmart, 65, leads the fourth generation of his family at the helm of the family restaurant business, Columbia. Â
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Long before Richard Gonzmart was an iconic figure in the Tampa restaurant scene, he was a stud high school football running back in town. Gonzmart was on Jesuit High’s 1968 state championship team. He considers longtime Tigers coach “Wild” Bill Minahan, a U.S. Marine, Korean War Veteran and an old-school, gruff, straight-out-of-central-casting high school coach, a third life mentor, behind his father and grandfather.

 

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