Marineland Mayor Gary Inks Dies at 79; Had Led Career in Resort and Dolphin Attraction Marketing

Gary Paul Inks, the mayor of Marineland since last year, a member of that town’s commission since 2020, and a former marketing director for Marineland Dolphin Adventure, died over the weekend after battling illness for weeks. He was 79. 

Marineland City Attorney Dennis Bayer said from his understanding, Inks had died Saturday or Sunday in hospice. Last week’s meeting of the commission–called a Town Hall meeting in a town of half a dozen permanent residents–was called off, as Inks was already in hospice by then. 

Inks’s death leaves the Marineland Town Commission with just one member: Dewey Dew. He was vice mayor. He is now acting mayor. Angela TenBroeck had served on the Marineland Commission as commissioner and mayor until February, when she had to resign after losing her permanent residence in the town (a few steps down from Inks’s residence). 

“I mourn the passing of Mayor Gary Ink, a person who loved Marineland and recognized the great potential in its thoughtful development,” TenBroeck said this morning. “I send my personal condolences to all who loved and cared for him.”

The town did no itself issue a statement or reflect Inks’s passing on its webpage. 

“In a professional relationship, working with Gary when he was at Marineland Dolphin Adventure and as mayor,” Town Marina Dock Master Eric Zeicheck said today, “he always had a vision to try to bring Marineland the town into a place for eco tourism and for a place individuals could learn about what was going on. He was supportive of the Marina and what we do at the Marina,” particularly in terms of educating boaters about reducing impacts on the environment. Zeicheck regularly sat with the commission at meetings, working with Inks. 

Even after TenBroek’s departure in February, the commission had not yet discussed a replacement for her. It’s now without a quorum, and facing what may be an unprecedented situation, as it would have Dew chair a meeting on his own. Is that possible under the charter? “Very good question. I’m researching that now,” Bayer said, and researching next steps for the commission. 

Meanwhile, Bayer said, “We’ve got our staff in place. The plan is, we’ll have a special meeting sometime in the next week or so to work out some of these issues.”

Inks as mayor since last fall had developed few connections with his fellow mayors in the county. Flagler’s mayors meet once a quarter, but the mayors of Bunnell and Flagler Beach both said they had not got to know him. (Beverly Beach Mayor Steve Emmett could not be reached.) He’d made a couple of appearances as part of the past year’s joint meetings of local governments, representing Marineland and supporting the county’s overall beach-management plan to save the beaches.

He also served on Flagler County’s Tourist Development Council. In 2017 and 2018, County Tourism Director Amy Lukasik recalled, he was instrumental in getting “Bernie the Dolphin,” the movie, filmed in part at Marineland. The movie got its red-carpet premier at Epic Theatre in Palm Coast. “He was passionate about tourism of course, he’d been in the industry a long time,” Lukasik said, “and when he was serving on the council he was forward-looking, and he got it. At the same time he wasn’t scared to take risks.” 

He became mayor last September. For many years, according to his LinkedIn page, which he copiously maintained, he’d led his own marketing company, called High Performance Profits, while working in marketing for several companies. He did so for a medical supplies company in 2019 and 2020, and was vice president and general manager of Marineland Dolphin Adventure between 2017 and 2019. He’d a consultant for the attraction’s previous owner, the Georgia Aquarium, between 2017 and 2019. For several decades before that he was in marketing for a series of resorts and casino organizations in South Florida, in Maryland and in Ohio.