FEBRUARY/MARCH 2001
FSU CELEBRATES 150 YEARS
Music and song, skywriters and fireworks. Students, alumni, faculty and staff crowding into Westcott Plaza. Mayors, sheriffs, volunteers in period costumes re-enacting the significant events of Florida State University's storied past.
Fraternities and sororities hosting exhibit booths. State senators and representatives. Deans and dignitaries. Alumni and friends. They were all there on January 24, 2001, to celebrate the university's 150th Birthday.
And a grand affair it was. History and human harmony mingled to create an ambience of honor and pride on a sunny and mild afternoon around the famous Westcott Fountain.
And there was more: Performers on stilts, representing the only university with a program for would-be circus performers. Banners of 16 colleges and schools posted under each of the antique-style streetlights circling the Westcott Plaza. The surrogate Louisa June Elliott, Florida State College for Women, Class of 1892, meeting and greeting those who came for the celebration.
Historical pictures projected on a 15 x 21-foot screen. And
Master of Ceremonies, Scott Atwell, dressed in period costume
as the Town Crier of Tallahassee, then just a community of 1,500
hardy souls:
"Hear Ye, Hear Ye Hear Ye! One and all draw near. I bring
glad tidings. Let it forever be known that on this day, 24 January,
1851, our fair city and our great state have made a commitment
to greatness with the introduction of public higher education.
The actions of the day are cause for celebration."
Atwell then invited the co-chairs of the 150th Birthday planning committee, FSU alumni Kitty Hoffman and Alan Sundberg, to ring the tower bell.
Also donning period costume, Scott Maddox, Tallahassee Mayor
and a Florida State alumnus, received a document from Sheriff
Larry Campbell who rode on horseback into Westcott circle. Maddox
read the historical announcement:
"The sheriff has just delivered a statute signed into law
this 24 January 1951. By our own Governor Brown" Maddox
went on to read the law establishing two seminaries in Florida,
the forerunners of Florida State University and the University
of Florida.
Town Crier Atwell sketched the evolution of the Seminary West of the Suwannee into the Florida State College, with the renowned Ruby Diamond and her classmates receiving the last diplomas bearing that name. The crier moved on through the Florida Female College, the forerunner-FSU name that became synonymous with the finest American liberal arts education.
The Crier leaped forward to the development of FSU's seal, under President Edward Conradi, with three torches bearing the Latin words for strength, skill and customs - vires, artes and mores. These torches would represent the way another FSU-forerunner, the Florida State College for Women, would educate its students - physically, mentally and morally.
At that point in the celebration, Kitty Hoffman, a past president of the university's Faculty Senate, and its current president, Karen Laughlin, lighted the first torch. Current Seminole football star, Chris Hope, also an academic All-American, lit the second torch and the Student Body president, Brett Cook, lit the third.
Town Crier Atwell then led the audience through the World War II era, after which the college returned to a co-educational status and became Florida State University. One of then President Doak Campbell's first acts was to establish the football team that we now know as two-time national champions.
Not many historical stones went unturned. The crowd celebrated the coming of the 49ers, those academic scholars who would enrich FSU's scientific program forever. Together the crowd flashed back to the social changes of the sixties and FSU's first African-American graduate, Max Courtney, in 1965.
Other fantastic historical flashes included a look at the legendary physicist Paul Dirac, one of five Nobel Laureates to serve on the FSU faculty.
Another flash was to an alumnus named Reubin Askew, who served two terms as Governor of Florida, ran for the presidency of the United States and now has returned to help FSU with its academic programs. And then a flash to two other alumni, former astronauts Norm Thagard and Winston Scott, who also have returned to help their Alma Mater with its mission. And the crowd celebrated the living history of such notables as Robert Holton, who synthesized the potent cancer-fighting drug, Taxol, and continues his research at FSU.
The crowd celebrated the accomplishments of FSU's 16 schools and colleges and heralded the university's 17th college, the new College of Medicine.
John Thrasher, former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, took little credit for establishing FSU's new medical college. In his remarks he gave credit to President Sandy D'Alemberte. Thrasher said D'Alemberte was "the visionary, the person that never stopped believing that we could do this, and certainly the one who kept me on task during the time we were considering that (the College of Medi-cine)."
Thrasher also acknowledged and thanked Larry Abele, FSU provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs, for his work in establishing the college, as well as Beverly Spencer, vice president for University Relations, and Kathleen Daly, director of Governmental Relations.
Then came the birthday video wishes from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and famous Seminoles and Alumni throughout the country. Wishes came from singer Rita Coolidge, Chief Jim Billie of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, actor Burt Reynolds, Broadway star Davis Gaines, State Sen. Jim King, pro basketball star Charlie Ward, Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening, former basketball star Dave Cowens, Capt. Barry Bruner and the crew of the USS Florida and Bobby Bowden.
D'Alemberte was joined at the dais by former presidents Dale Lick, Bernie Sliger and Stanley Marshall; Dr. Robert Holton; and Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration John Carnaghi, who is leading restoration and construction projects across campus.
Before D'Alemberte spoke, Atwell made the segue from FSU's living history to its future. He tied a copy of the statute that created FSU to an array of garnet and gold helium-filled balloons. He let them go. Then, the crowd could hear a familiar voice. It was Hal, the computer of 2001 Space Odyssey fame - a voice to remember also congratulating FSU on its 150th Anniversary.
Then D'Alemberte recounted the heroes and accomplishments of FSU. He asked the audience to imagine these heroes in a parade before them.
Those heroes, he said, "are all part of what we are today. They are part of what we'll be tomorrow.
"Think of those who have joined this parade in recent times: Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners those who have prepared the way for our new medical school; those who have led the partnership with Ringling; those who have developed distance learning; and the people whose generosity and hard work have brought our endowment to record levels.
"Today marks the beginning of Florida State's next 150 years. From this day forward, January 24 will be Heritage Day for Florida State University, the day when the entire university comes together for the purpose of celebrating our history and accomplishments, the day we look forward to as we celebrate our rich history and welcome the challenges that lay ahead." - Frank D. Murphy
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