FEBRUARY MARCH 1999 
$1 Million Gifts
LANGFORD
In World War II, George Langford built bridges as a buck sergeant with the Army combat engineers so American tanks could cross rivers.
The civilian Langford is still building bridges - of a philanthropic design. Langford, 75, has been helping Florida State for 50 years.
"We can compete with any university in the country with everything except money," Langford said.
His most recent, but by no means his first, gift to Florida State is $1 million to the Seminole Boosters. His dedication to Florida State is impressive - especially since he didn't attend FSU.
"My mother was a Virginian," he said. "She had always said she wanted me to go to the University of Virginia, so I did. I graduated in the class of '49 with a law degree."
Then, he said, "I came to Tallahassee and met the city attorney, Jim Messer, and he was trying to codify the laws of the city and publish an up-to-date code of laws, and I said, 'well I can do that,' and so I did."
Langford's Municipal Code Corporation has been updating laws for cities ever since.
How did FSU enter his life?
"I was just asked to help," Langford said.
It was 1950, right after the war. FSU was just starting the football program. Over the years he and his family have created eminent-scholar chairs for FSU's classics department and another for the law school.
He led a capital campaign that raised more than $301 million. He is in the FSU Hall of Fame, is a Double Golden Chief and has been chairman of the Boosters three times. He has endowed a $50,000 football scholarship.
"If more students want to come to FSU because of athletics, that helps everybody, because the tide rises and brings everything with it," he said.
HENDERSONS
An FSU scholarship swimmer and a 1965 business graduate, J. Sherman Henderson III hopes his recent $1-million gift to FSU athletics will make a difference in all the sports.
Today Henderson lives in Louisville, Ky., with his wife, Judie. He is founder, president and CEO of UniDial, a business that resells telephone service all over the country.
Though he runs a successful business three states away, Henderson finds time for his alma mater.
He was the 1998 chairman of the Seminole Boosters board and plans to remain integrally involved with the Boosters.
He has seen what FSU sports need.
"Other schools have been in existence (as co-educational institutions with long traditions of male sports) for a long time and are well-endowed by their generous alums," Henderson said. "Florida State hardly has any male alums who are 70 years old. It's a big task to make FSU's programs better and to keep up our national prominence. I'm talking about all sports, from swimming to tennis to golf. Everything."
Henderson is proud of Florida State's accomplishments in academics as well as athletics. But he says success today doesn't guarantee success tomorrow.
"When you look at the prominence of Florida State in the university system, in order to be a leader, you've got to continue to grow," Henderson said. "It requires money to expand in order to provide opportunities for both male and female athletes. Therefore we must raise money.
"I've seen what our competition is building for its student athletes, and it's a big task to keep up with the ACC alone.
"One of the things I believe in is that when you get something as powerful as an opportunity to be educated in a university such as Florida State, and by being an athlete, there does come a time you should have the feeling that it's time to give back what you took away."