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THE GIFTS - WHAT ARE THEY FOR?
To give scholarships to students who will teach math and science...
By Dana Peck, Special to the Florida State Times
Andy Buglione, the son of Italian immigrants, is the first to say he had a tough time making the dean's list at Florida State.
If it hadn't been for his professors' patience, Buglione said, he never could have earned his degree in education and gone on to become a public school teacher.
"I've been given so much help by people through all my life," he said, "I'd like to give it back, particularly to the young people."
And that's exactly what Buglione and Marjorie, his wife of 51 years, are doing.
This spring, they donated $300,000 to FSU's College of Education. The fund, matched in part by the state, is for scholarships for education students majoring in math and science.
"I was interested in math and science," Buglione said. "There is so much need for it in education and in life."
The Bugliones' gift is a real tribute, said Jack Miller, dean of the College of Education.
"It will enable us to compete for the best students, and recruit the best who need financial help," Miller said. "We don't get those kinds of gifts every day."
Buglione's love for teaching began late in his life. He spent his early years in his family's native village of Summonte, Italy. (Although Buglione was born in Waterbury, Conn., his father moved the family back to Italy when the U. S. Army refused to accept the elder Buglione as a soldier in World War I.)
The young Buglione didn't return to the states until 1929, when he was 16 years old. He finished school in Connecticut, and then, unlike his father, enlisted in the military and made a career of it until his retirement in 1959.
Buglione then settled in Pensacola with his wife, and attended Pensacola Junior College on the G. I. Bill.
To get his degree, Buglione had to commute to FSU during the week, and settle for spending only weekends at home with Marjorie.
It wasn't easy, said Buglione, but it was worth the effort.
"I tell you, I had a tough time, but everybody was just wonderful to me," he said. "The professors knew my background. So maybe they took pity on me."
After he got his degree, Buglione said, he eventually got a master's. It took him four years, he said, but he got it.
In 1963, Buglione accepted a position in a junior high school in Belle Glade.
Later, satisfying his and Marjorie's desire to be nearer the coast, he took a job teaching fifth and sixth graders in Jupiter, where he taught until his retirement in 1980.
Today the Bugliones are living in Juno Beach. Although he has been legally blind for the past six years, Buglione said, he listens to talking books and manages to play his favorite game, golf, three times a week.
"I've been lucky," he said.
"I've been very fortunate. I'm proud of what I've done."
To prepare students for a 'glorious' life
By Bayard Stern, Assistant editor, Florida State Times
Melvin L. Pope sold real estate and insurance and made a good living for the family.
Helen Smoyer Pope taught first grade and made a good reputation for her family. Her husband was also impressed.
"She loved children; she had a glorious life," Pope said. "She taught first grade. It's hard to imagine how a person could love those little children so much. She was so enthusiastic about those kids."
So, in her memory, he has given a $200,000 endowment for scholarships for students of elementary education in Florida State's College of Education.
His wife-to-be graduated from Florida State College for Women with a bachelor's degree in elementary education in 1930. She earned a master's degree in 1937. Later, she earned enough credits for a doctorate, but said she didn't need it because she wanted to be a classroom teacher, not an administrator.
She did the work she loved for more than 40 years - at Sealey Elementary, at Florida State's developmental research school and at Kate Sullivan Elementary. In 1968, she was one of the eight founding faculty at Maclay School. Five years later, she retired and in 1995, she died.
Her husband - who had started his career as a barber, owned a salon and sold it to enter real estate and insurance sales - decided to help Florida State prepare teachers for the future.
"I was fortunate enough to do this financially to contribute to the university in her honor," he said.