Remembering
Gary C. Matzner

Gary C. Matzner died at home in Pinecrest on July 20, 2024, at age seventy-five, surrounded by his family. He is remembered first as Veronica’s husband of forty-one years and as a devoted father to their four sons.

Family and early life.

Gary was born in Stamford, Connecticut, on October 2, 1948. He studied at the University of Connecticut, Temple University, and the University of Miami before beginning his legal career in Florida. He met Veronica in Miami in the 1980s, and together they raised Ryan, Alex, Eric, and Ethan in the community that would become Pinecrest.

Public meetings and legal work occupied much of his life, but family remained its center. He left the office for his sons’ games, stayed whether they played or sat on the bench, and made time for the golf, meals, movies, and South Florida sports he enjoyed with family and friends.

Founding Pinecrest.

In the early 1990s, frustration with county services led Gary and his neighbors to study whether their community could govern itself. What began with meetings in Gary and Veronica’s living room became a public campaign for incorporation. Gary helped negotiate the county process and later chaired the commission that drafted the Village Charter adopted on March 12, 1996.

Pinecrest knew him as the Father of the Village. In 2004, he took office as its second mayor. He intended to serve one term and did so, leaving office in 2008 after work on parks, public facilities, lighting, water infrastructure, and the Village’s finances.

“If you bring government down to the people, people will get involved.”

Gary Matzner, after Pinecrest voters approved the Village Charter in 1996

Preserving Parrot Jungle.

When Parrot Jungle prepared to leave its historic site, Gary led Preserve the Jungle. The campaign brought residents, donors, Village officials, and public grants together to secure the property. The former attraction was dedicated as Pinecrest Gardens in 2003, preserving its tropical landscape as a public park. Gary’s first act as mayor was to remove its five-dollar admission fee.

Healthcare law and Temple Judea.

Gary was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1973 and practiced for more than fifty years. He advised hospitals, managed-care organizations, physician groups, surgery centers, and other healthcare businesses on regulation, transactions, and governance. KO Lawyers, where he spent approximately the final twelve years of his career, described him as the “Dean of Health Law Attorneys.”

From 2018 to 2020, Gary served as president of Temple Judea of Coral Gables. His term included the congregation’s abrupt move to remote worship, education, meetings, and outreach in the spring of 2020. His family remembers his work on the congregation’s internal operations and its preparation for the leaders who followed him.

Gary C. Matzner Park.

Pinecrest acquired and named the 3.76-acre Gary C. Matzner Park site on North Kendall Drive in 2021. Gary attended its groundbreaking with his family, Village officials, and neighbors on July 12, 2024. The park was planned during his lifetime and honors the public life he helped build in Pinecrest.