Gabrielle Oerter’s goal was simple as she contemplated her move to Fort Myers from Palmer Lake, Colo., earlier this year.


“I was planning to work side by side with my dad,” Oerter, 46, said Monday morning, sitting at a corner table at a downtown Fort Myers coffeehouse.

Her dad is Olympic legend Al Oerter, a four-time gold medalist in the discus and a Fort Myers Beach resident. His goal was turning a waterfront building in Fort Myers into Art of the Olympians, the global gallery of art by Olympic athletes. Al Oerter died Oct. 1. He was 71.

His dream remains alive. The youngest of his two daughters is working with Oerter’s widow, Cathy, and Oerter friends Lin Bochette and Markus Sherry to move the project forward.

“It’s even more important,” Gabrielle said. “It really is. Because I’ve had a lot of people ask me, ‘Where are you going now? Is it dead because he is?’ And it’s the point I want to make to people, this is bigger than just his legacy. It’s bigger than that.”

Gabrielle Oerter moved into her Fort Myers home in the first week of November. Her job is turning her dad’s vision into reality. The name of the building will be the Al Oerter Center of Excellence.

She believes her father personified excellence.

While competing as a world-class athlete he worked as an engineer at Grumman Aircraft Corp. His duties, according to Gabrielle, included working on the lunar landing module for the 1969 moon landing. After his athletic and engineering careers, Oerter moved on to art.

The project timetable now calls for an opening late in 2008. The project has the seal of approval from the United States Olympic Committee. The city of Fort Myers is on board, despite some red tape that irked Al Oerter.

“He’s not used to working like that,” Cathy Oerter said. “He had some things planned. (Lin) can attest to this because he’s an Olympian. This has been a wonderful experience working on this with Olympians because they see it, do it. There’s no if, and or but. OK, this is what we need to do.

No red tape. So running into this city where there was red tape after red tape was really, I think, frustrating.”

Lin Bochette, a Fort Myers High graduate and an Olympic bobsledder, understands the ways of the city.

“The city has been very cautious," Bochette said. “Although we don’t like the slowdowns, they’ve been very cautious to follow the absolute proper steps so there can be no complaints.”

Don Paight, executive director of the Fort Myers Downtown Redevelopment Agency, is confident the dream will become reality.

“There’s just a few items we needed to clarify,” Paight said. “Relatively minor issues. Just needed to make sure they were agreeable on the language on the lease.”

Paight said the initial lease will be $1 a year. That, he said, will likely cover the initial five-year lease period. Options to renew the lease are in place.

The Olympic art gallery could be a sports marketing bonus, according to the Lee County Sports Authority.

“It would be a valuable marketing tool for us to sell this destination,” said Gary Ewen, the authority’s business development director. “It would be one of the things to add to our sales pitch.”

The family and friends Al Oerter are convinced his death is not the end of the dream.
“Art of the Olympians will happen,” said Cathy Oerter, who was Al’s second wife and is not Gabrielle’s mother. “Definitely.”

Gabrielle echoes the woman who married her father.

“I moved here from Colorado,” Gabrielle Oerter said. “This is happening. I bought a house. I do not want to go back.”

Gabrielle daydreams about the grand opening.

“I’m going to try to keep it together because dad should be there,” Gabrielle said. “That’s going to be the hardest thing in the world but it will be a celebration.”