Across the SPRING SUMMER THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 2 0 1 3 Then and now Rediscovering the past, preparing for the future artsandsciences.fsu.edu SPRING / SUMMER 2013 • Letter from the dean reetings to our alumni and Those of you who know Jim O’Brien friends, and welcome to will understand when I describe him as a another issue of Across the force of nature. We honor his long career, Spectrum. In this issue, we one in which he has shared his passion celebrate both the history and for his subject with so many students, Photo by FSU Photo Lab Photo FSU by Photo G the future of FSU with stories with a profile in this issue. Perhaps the that simultaneously indulge our nostalgia most startling thing about Jim is the sheer DEAN PUBLISHER for the past and speak to the promise of number of students he’s mentored— Sam Huckaba Nancy Smilowitz our university moving forward. One of the including 44 Ph.D.s. After all he’s given to EDITOR DESIGNER great joys of being a part of a college as FSU, it gives me great pleasure to celebrate Wil Oakes Martin Young large and diverse as the College of Arts his career here. www.oakescreative.com [email protected] and Sciences is that our particular story is woven through every aspect of the larger Robert O. Lawton Professor of English PHOTOGRAPHY COPYEDITOR university’s story. This Spectrum invites us Stan Gontarski is part of an effort that Penny Gilmer Barry Ray WIMSE to remember that story even as we prepare has recently uncovered original writings FSU Special Collections CONSULTING EDITORS to write the next chapter. and documents of the Beat Generation FSU Heritage Protocol Lois Hawkes literary icon William Burroughs. The story, Wil Oakes Elizabeth Spiller Florida State University’s history is rich in recounted within, involves an eccentric FSU Photo Lab Susan Hellstrom Jim O’Brien contributions by women. The women— former FSU art professor, an abandoned Carol Heard WRITING faculty members, students, and staff—who artist’s complex, and a tiny town 16 miles FSU Office of University Relations Wil Oakes have walked the halls of FSCW (the Florida to the east of Tallahassee. The valuable Tom Leonard Carol Heard State College for Women) and later, FSU, documents will be a source of scholarship State Archives of Florida Paul Ardoin have left their mark in spectacular ways. for years to come, and it’s our privilege to Blake Stricklin TO MAKE A GIFT In this issue you will read about a thriving have them at FSU. Nancy Smilowitz John Trombetta campus organization called Women in Asst. Dean for Development Senior Development Officer Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Finally, the story of FSU alumnus Tom Office: (850) 644-9324 Office: (850) 645-0403 (WIMSE). Since its origins some 20 years Leonard and his wife Laurrie, who have Cell: (850) 294-1034 [email protected] [email protected] ago, WIMSE has helped maintain and established a fund to provide scholarships strengthen the role of women on our for students in need, is a great example of Jeff Ereckson Leslie Deslis campus. A timeline accompanying the how our rich history feeds our future. Tom’s Director of Development Development Officer story showcases that role, one of leadership remarkable career as an entrepreneur is Office: (850) 644-3370 Office: (850) 645-9544 and achievement, from the university’s already full of successes and one senses Cell: (850) 445-3177 Cell: (850) 228-3075 [email protected] [email protected] founding through the present day. that there is much more to come. His decision to pass to future generations the Across the Spectrum is a news publication for alumni, One of the many women who have made tools for success that he acquired at FSU is friends, faculty, and staff of the Florida State University us great is Gloria Priest, whose gifts to the an inspiration to us all. College of Arts and Sciences. Visit the college online at Department of Religion are highlighted http://artsandsciences.fsu.edu/. in this issue. The scholarly interaction Thank you so much for staying in touch that takes place with the campus visits of with the College of Arts and Sciences. I nationally renowned scholars is a defining hope you enjoy this issue of Across the feature of FSU. It is hard to overestimate the Spectrum as much as I have. Best wishes inspiration and energy that our academic for a productive and satisfying summer. community draws from these events. I am very grateful to Gloria for establishing an endowment that ensures continuation of the John F. Priest Lectureship series for generations to come. Physical chemist Naresh Dalal was named the 2012 Robert O. Lawton Professor, the highest honor given by FSU to its faculty. Dalal is the 57th professor to earn the honor, and the 10th from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He is pictured here with Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Garnett Stokes. On the cover Across the The main building of the Nautilus Foundation, an artists’ commune and retreat built by former FSU professor François Bucher, has SpectrumTHE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES been at the center of a 30-year saga involving a cache of manuscripts from famed novelist William Burroughs. Read about Bucher, Burroughs, and the literary detective work table of of FSU’s English department on page 16. contents f e a t u r e s The science of success 2 2 FSU fights gender inequality in the sciences with a secret weapon Femina Perfecta 2 A selected history of women at FSU A legacy in the numbers 6 Meteorology professor Jim O’Brien celebrates 43 years, 44 Ph.D. students, and an impact beyond measure John F. Priest lectureship 10 12 turns 10 Gloria Priest ensures many years to come with gift to religion department Then and now 12 A look at the changing face of FSU and the College of Arts and Sciences A 30-year wait. 16 A 16-mile journey. A literary treasure emerges from the Florida wilderness Innovative giving 21 This year, The Great Give is going green A commitment to excellence 22 FSU alum Tom Leonard and wife Laurrie establish endowment to fund undergraduate education SPRING / SUMMER 20136 • artsandsciences.fsu.edu The science of success How FSU’s Women in Math, Science, and Engineering (WIMSE) program addresses the struggle for gender equality in traditionally male fields hen Amanda Stefin, a This residence hall was Cawthon Hall, and friends in similar fields at similar life stages,” junior chemistry major in the women she took the test with had more says Susan Blessing, a professor of physics and her second year at Florida in common than a housing assignment. They the director of WIMSE. “And it’s especially for State, thinks back on her were the latest addition to the Women in the future—we’re encouraging them to go to W very earliest experiences as Math, Science, and Engineering (WIMSE) graduate school.” a college student, taking the True Colors test in program, a “living-learning community” as well her freshman residence hall comes immediately as a larger society that brings together young The rise of a community to mind. women forging their way in the traditionally male-dominated science disciplines. In 1993, Jennie Murphree Hall (one of “It’s a personality test that FSU’s older dormitories, built in 1922) was allows you to examine WIMSE is perhaps FSU’s most versatile rededicated after a full renovation. According to yourself and be aware weapon in the fight to bring some gender Professor Emerita of Chemistry Penny Gilmer, of your tendencies,” parity to the sciences, a struggle that has been a member of the WIMSE board of directors Stefin says. “It allowed ongoing in America’s universities since the from its founding until her retirement in 2010, roommates to understand early 1970s. That versatility comes from its a group of women interested in what has come how to live together and two-pronged approach: It provides students to be known as the STEM fields (science, work together. We became with a supportive and enjoyable social group technology, engineering, and math) began Professor of Physics Susan Blessing closer as we began to tell of like-minded peers while at the same time living together in an informal community. serves as Director each other our colors pushing and helping young women to find and of FSU’s Women and we understood how take academic opportunities whenever they That informal grouping of women was the start in Math, Science, and Engineering to adapt to each color come—especially the chance to participate in of something, but, Gilmer says, it didn’t become (WIMSE) program. accordingly.” real scientific research. official until Professor of Oceanography Nancy Marcus became the founding director of what It sounds like the kind of activity that happens The program is of vital importance to the is now known as WIMSE in 2001. in residence halls, Greek houses, or other College of Arts and Sciences since the fields campus organizations at any university in in question make up roughly half of its “This was maybe a preamble to a living-learning the country, but Stefin’s freshman group was departments. community,” says Gilmer. “It was a living something entirely different from the usual community, and it was focused on STEM, arbitrary collection of new students thrust into “WIMSE is about providing the students with but it wasn’t a living-learning community.