Our story is about building a pharmacy business based on family values, and lots of hard work and dedication to serving our customers (the patient). In the early years, our pharmacy included a soda fountain and I remember my father going to work early each day to make donuts. The pharmacy was open Monday - Saturday 8 am - 8 pm, which means we didn't eat dinner until my dad came home. In fact, I thought everyone ate dinner after 8 pm.

 

The drugstore was closed on Sunday. Our family went to Church in the morning and then lunch at Morrison's Cafeteria in Leesburg. Sunday afternoons were all about watching football, but my dad's choice was to return to the pharmacy to catch up on paperwork, fill emergency prescriptions or urgent orders for nursing home residents. By now you can see that dedication and hard work were very important to my father. He expected the same from everyone who worked at the pharmacy and especially his children who witnessed his leadership by example. 

 

I decided to attend college where my Dad graduated; mostly because he was paying for it. Even though, becoming a pharmacist was one of my desires; I really wanted to fly fighter jets for the Air Force. At the close of the Vietnam conflict, the military had more pilots than they needed, so my candidate days were over. I took a new career direction and was accepted into Pharmacy School at Auburn University. 

 

While I was in pharmacy school, Bay Pharmacy continued to grow and prosper. Now there were four full-time pharmacists working in my father's downtown corner drugstore. By the time I graduated in 1979, Bay Pharmacy did not need another pharmacist, so I spent the next four years in Southern California working for a regional pharmacy chain Sav-On Drugs. 

In 1983, an opportunity presented itself to return to Eustis to purchase a competing small pharmacy six blocks from my father's. Now we were a multi-store chain pharmacy! Computerization was soon to follow. All the manual patient profiles went away, along with typewriters, and the bottle label tab holders on the typewriter carriage. We now had tube type green colored computer monitors that required practically the whole countertop. Backups were done on 6-inch floppy disks, and updates took hours to install. 

Bay Pharmacy continued to be the cornerstone business in downtown Eustis, despite the number of competitors. We learned over time that my Dad's dedication and hard work would outshine any competition.

 

My dad died in 2007, and I had been working alongside him for 24 years. By this time my daughter had now become a pharmacist and joined our team. He was extremely proud of her accomplishment, as pharmacy school is tough! Today my son and niece have joined us to continue the tradition of offering pharmacy service to area residents. Our staff exceeds more than 40 full-time employees in a variety of positions: pharmacists, registered and licensed nurses, licensed pharmacy technicians, managers, packaging personnel and delivery representatives.

 

We are the largest independent pharmacy in Lake County, and our broad pharmacy offerings provide us with the tools we need to serve our patients. I am so excited about the future! After over 60 years in the business, our story continues to unfold as we grow, mature and are reborn again. Our connection with our partners is one of trust and taking ownership of providing quality care to our mutual patients. 

 

We still eat dinner after 8 pm...doesn't everyone?

Welcome to the 

Bay Pharmacy Family