VIRES®
THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Allan Bense, Chair Susie Busch-Transou, Vice Chair Edward E. “Ed” BurrOF A PUBLICATION Joseph L. Camps STATE UNIVERSITY THE FLORIDA Rosalia “Rosie” Contreras ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Emily Fleming Duda 1030 West Tennessee Street Tallahassee, FL 32304 850.644.2761 | alumni.fsu.edu
PUBLISHER: Scott Atwell EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Katie Hilton DESIGNER: Jessica I. Rosenthal COPY EDITOR: Ron Hartung CONTRIBUTOR: Andrew Faught
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION STAFF: Scott Atwell Ryanne Aviña Meagan Bonnell Louise Bradshaw Brittany Christie Valerie Colvin Dia Combas Jeff Harmeling Katie Hilton Dawn Cannon Jennings Adam Kabuka Elina Kopylov Jenn Mauck Michael McFadden Stephanie McMillon Austin Moser Lisa O’Malley David Overstreet Whitney Powers Jessica Rosenthal Angie Standley Jessica Tanca Jennifer Tobias Aimee Wirth The FSU Alumni Association extends a special thank you to FSU Athletics, the FSU Photo Lab and others for allowing us to use their photographs in the magazine.
FROM THE PUBLISHER HISTORY CLASS In November, the Class of 1965 came back to campus to celebrate its 50th reunion and induction into the Emeritus Alumni Society (see page 42). This is one heck of a class — producing an FSU president in John Thrasher, two chairmen of the FSU Alumni Association National Board of Directors and collectively donating $14 million to their alma mater. Not to mention that ’65 was the first class to defeat the Gators in football. Their legacy, however, goes much deeper. The Class of 1965 included Maxwell Courtney, FSU’s first African-American graduate. During the emeritus induction brunch, I had the privilege of sitting with Joyce Killian Godwin, a ’65 student government leader who was assigned by the university to be Courtney’s liaison. Her task was to check with him daily to help FSU leadership intervene in any difficulties he encountered. She said Courtney’s gentle nature provided the right temperament to endure the challenges of being a racial trailblazer. After graduation, Godwin and her husband, Earl, wound up living in Washington, D.C. — the same city, coincidentally, where Courtney landed a job. Earl reminisced about a kinship he developed with Courtney over The Kingston Trio’s music, and said the couple had dinner with him just a few weeks before he died in a drowning accident in 1975. On that same Homecoming weekend I was with Courtney’s classmate, President Thrasher, as he addressed the FSU Black Alumni Homecoming crowd and underscored his commitment to honoring their collective aspirations. Maxwell Courtney would have been proud, and I wish he could have been there to see it.
Scott Atwell (M.S. ’15) President & CEO FSU Alumni Association
Top: Courtney’s larger-than-life legacy is part of FSU’s Integration statue. Above: Godwin and classmate Thrasher Photo by Steve Chase
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