{"id":71845,"date":"2026-06-23T20:05:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=71845"},"modified":"2026-06-23T20:05:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:05:43","slug":"brian-west-the-face-of-publix-in-tampa-bay-has-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/06\/23\/brian-west-the-face-of-publix-in-tampa-bay-has-died\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian West, the face of Publix in Tampa Bay, has died"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_71847\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-71847\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-dominant-color=\"b2c4ac\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #b2c4ac;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-71847 not-transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dsc0921-300x200.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dsc0921-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dsc0921-768x511.webp 768w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dsc0921.webp 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-71847\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brian West, far left, was Publix Super Markets Inc.&#8217;s community relations manager<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"p-rc_3bb254b89b1dd0da-141\" data-path-to-node=\"0\">It is incredibly heartbreaking news. <span class=\"citation-316 citation-end-316\">Brian West was truly a pillar of the Tampa Bay and Central Florida communities, known to so many as the friendly, comforting face of Publix for nearly 25 years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"p-rc_3bb254b89b1dd0da-142\" data-path-to-node=\"1\"><span class=\"citation-315 citation-end-315\">He passed away following a severe accident over the weekend while preparing a going-away party for his son, who was about to leave for West Point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"p-rc_3bb254b89b1dd0da-143\" data-path-to-node=\"2\"><span class=\"citation-314 citation-end-314\">Beyond his visible role as Publix&#8217;s Media and Community Relations Manager\u2014where he kicked off local staples like the Gasparilla Distance Classic and heavily supported the Florida Strawberry Festival\u2014he quietly gave an immense amount of his time to local causes.<\/span> He served with the Plant City Lions Club, the Rotary Club, and the United Food Bank of Plant City, always showing up with what friends and colleagues describe as a true &#8220;servant&#8217;s heart.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"p-rc_3bb254b89b1dd0da-144\" data-path-to-node=\"3\"><span class=\"citation-313 citation-end-313\">In a final act of profound generosity, his family shared that he was an organ donor, continuing to help others even in his passing.<\/span> He leaves behind his wife, Jennifer, and their three children. It&#8217;s an immense loss for the entire region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is incredibly heartbreaking news. Brian West was truly a pillar of the Tampa Bay and Central Florida communities, known to so many as the friendly, comforting face of Publix&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\r\n\r\n{excerpt}\r\n\r\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[14982,14650,14983],"class_list":["post-71845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-brian-west","tag-has-died","tag-the-face-of-publix-in-tampa-bay"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71848,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71845\/revisions\/71848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}