Allan Paul Waters, Husband of Seminole Mayor, Dies | Tampa Bay Reporter

It is with great sadness and grief that I share that my wonderful husband, Al Waters, passed away at midnight August 7, 2021. He never quite bounced back from back surgery from three weeks ago. He was in St. Anthony’s Hospital, Rehab, St. Anthony’s again, and then Hospice for the past three days. His ordeal is now over. He is at peace.

Al Waters graduated from Jesuit High School and the University of Tampa and served as a Lieutenant in the Army is Viet Nam War. In the 1960’s he was disc jockey for WALT, WHBO, WYOU and WINQ radio stations in Tampa and he was a part-time sports writer for the Tampa Tribune. Al was the owner of Waters Risk Management consulting firm for 30 years from 1978 through 2008, and was a past national president of the Society of Risk Management Consultants.

An avid golfer, he was a member of the Seminole Lake Country Club Golf Club for more than 40 years. He was the Men’s Match Play Champion several times over the years. He had a killer drive!

Al and I were married for 44 years and he pursued me for three years, I was a hard to get girl, so let’s put down 47 wonderful and perfect years together. We had a perfect life together, we worked hard, traveled far, with lots of humor and fun. We always shared our home with dachshund pups – Cocoa, Pepsi, Sam, Jack, Arnie, and, currently Heidi and Jake, from Seminole Lake.

Never an argument. No regrets, except we certainly wanted even more years together. God had a different plan.

Al golfed in 22 countries and traveled in more than 50 countries.

His mother, Natasha Derbeneff, of Moscow, was a professional ballerina and danced with the Ballet Russe throughout Europe, and his father, LeRoy Waters, of Clinton, Iowa, besides being a professional house painter, managed a ballet academy and boutique for Natasha in Tampa. Both parents are deceased.

Survivors include his wife, Leslie Waters, an former employee of Allstate Insurance for several decades, a former Speaker Pro-Tempore of the Florida House of Representatives and current mayor of the city of Seminole. Al’s brother-in-law ,Bill Sampson, of Baird Realty, and sister-in-law, Luci Sampson, in the pet-sitting buisness, also survive him.