There were so many people who played a role in making Florida Gulf Coast University what it is today. We asked an assortment of staff and faculty for recommendations of individuals who may not be household names, but whose contributions stood out to them. Here are 20 unsung heroes who exemplify The FGCU Effect. We salute you.
MARGARET BANYAN
Margaret Banyan, associate professor and Master of Public Administration program coordinator at FGCU, has worked to incorporate principles of complete streets and livable communities into Southwest Florida policymaking. Her consulting projects enable her to teach students about the real world of public administration and public policy, encouraging many to pursue careers in this field and stay in the area. Banyan has trained and mentored many staffers and leaders in regional agencies and organizations, and arranged seminars and workshops with national experts to introduce new ideas to Southwest Florida. At FGCU, Banyan has served on several committees to advocate for better bike/pedestrian facilities and improve transit and parking on campus as part of the Campus Master Plan. In presenting BikeWalkLee’s highest honor, the 2017 Complete Streets Champion of the Year, to founding member Banyan, the coalition’s Darla Letourneau said, “Over the past decade, Dr. Banyan’s leadership and commitment to the complete streets movement has left a legacy of accomplishment and an impressive group of talented young leaders who will carry the complete streets/livable communities movement forward into the future. BikeWalkLee is deeply grateful to Margaret for her many contributions to making our community a better place.”
ANDREA (ANDI) BENSCOTER
Andi Benscoter is a founding staff member of Florida Gulf Coast University, serving as computer support specialist and webmaster in various College of Arts & Sciences departments since 1996, primarily helping faculty with the design and implementation of distance-learning classes along with technical support for faculty, staff and students. To understand Benscoter’s value to FGCU through the years, read the words written by Mary Ann Zager, associate dean in the College of Arts & Sciences and associate professor of criminal justice. She noted that in FGCU’s early years, Benscoter collaborated with Peggy Bradley, but “after Peggy retired, she soldiered on alone,” Zager wrote. “She guided me through developing my own course webpages using basic web editors; tutored me on using WebCT, Angel and Canvas; reviewed my courses and tried to teach me why the ‘Quality Matters’ Standards for colors and fonts makes sense. Andi helped me when it was discovered that links were broken, and she helped my students when my exams or assignments would not open (or were open initially but disappeared) more times than I can count over the past 20 years. I, and my students, owe her a debt that I won’t ever be able to repay.”
GEORGE BROWN
Never mind the name. George Brown, FGCU’s landscaping and grounds superintendent spends his days making the campus green. He saves trees, transplanting them when they are in the way of construction, plants native and drought-tolerant landscaping and tends to all of the flora as if it is his offspring. He’s been on the job since 1996, ridding the campus of exotic Brazilian pepper and melaleuca and replacing them with cypress, oaks and pines throughout the 800-acre spread. He also saw a way to merge the environment with learning, taking picnic tables and turning a cypress head into an outdoor classroom for environmental classes. Win Everham, professor and program leader of Environmental Studies, said, “In most places I’ve worked, the physical plant people have viewed themselves and operated as completely independent of curriculum. That’s just not the case here. George helped us realize the idea that the whole campus is a living lab for our students.”
ISSAC BRUNDAGE
The former director of community outreach at FGCU, Brundage spent more than three years overseeing campus-wide efforts to increase enrollment and retention, especially for minority students — a task in which he also greatly enhanced FGCU’s community presence as coordinator of the College Reach Out Program. He also served as ombudsman and assistant to the president while at FGCU, where he earned a master’s degree in educational leadership. Before joining fellow former FGCU administrators Joe Shepard and Jack Crocker as the vice president of student affairs and enrollment management at Western New Mexico University, (where Shepard is president and Crocker is provost and vice president of academic affairs) Brundage also was very active as a community leader in Southwest Florida, serving on boards with the Blanchard House Historical Museum in Punta Gorda, Immokalee Chamber of Commerce, St. Johns First Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Myers and the Quality Life Center in Fort Myers.
LINDA BUETTNER
As the long-time director of FGCU’s Center for Positive Aging, Linda Buettner conducted significant research on dementia. She was well-known for her research of therapeutic programs for older adults with dementia, depression, delirium and apathy. One study that focused on non-medicinal interventions for the treatment of disturbing behaviors in older adults with dementia in which therapeutic recreational intervention – cooking, music and art – appeared to work 96 percent of the time, a far better success rate than medications. She received funding from the national Alzheimer’s Association, the Rosalynn Carter Caregiver Foundation and the Retirement Research Foundation, among other sources. She conducted classes to allow pet owners and their pets to become Delta Society Certified Pet Partners teams who were then able to visit hospitalized children, ill or lonely adults and people in rehab centers. She also organized the Storm Chaser Community Walking Program to encourage people of all ages to incorporate walking into their lifestyles. These projects suited her well with her doctorate in gerontology and recreational therapy. She left FGCU to become a professor in the department of Community and Recreational Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She died in 2012 at the age of 56.
KATHLEEN CRAWFORD
Kathleen Crawford first came to Florida Gulf Coast University in 2001 as coordinator of auxiliary services, but her greatest impact came during her six-plus-year stint as sustainability coordinator from 2007-13. During the time Crawford was orchestrating the university’s efforts to become “climate neutral,” FGCU began Arbor Day celebrations in 2009 that engaged students, faculty, staff and community members that led to recognition of the university as a Tree Campus USA, and the 2012 event that planted 40 new trees around the Library Lawn earned FGCU the Arbor Day Foundation’s Community Award that year. Also in 2012, Crawford entered FGCU in the Climate Leadership Award competition sponsored by Second Nature and the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, and the university was one of 10 academic institutions nationally to win this honor, which goes to schools that demonstrate unparalleled innovation and leadership in promoting a sustainable future. To view the award-winning video Crawford submitted — “Florida Gulf Coast University: Embedded Sustainability” — visit: planetforward.org/idea/florida-gulf-coast-university-embedded-sustainability.
JACK CROCKER
The founding dean of the College of Arts and Sciences left a deep imprint at FGCU. Jack Crocker was instrumental in developing continuing education in Southwest Florida as director of the Renaissance Academy and implementing graduate programs as dean of graduate studies. He also served as FGCU’s interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. Truly a man for all seasons, Crocker originally went to college on basketball and baseball scholarships and became an accomplished literature and creative-writing professor. He’s also a talented poet and musician, with one of his FGCU legacies being co-writer (with James Lilliefors and Janet Johnson) of the university’s alma mater, “Where Our Wings Will Take Us,” introduced at the May 2000 graduation ceremony. Today, Crocker is provost and vice president of academic affairs at Western New Mexico University, where he’s reunited with former fellow FGCU administrators Joe Shepard and Isaac Brundage (Shepard is president, Brundage is vice president of student affairs and enrollment management).
JACK FENWICK
When architect Jack Fenwick signed on as FGCU’s director of Facilities Planning in 1994, the university didn’t have a name or a campus. He was the ninth employee hired. He devoted 15 years to overseeing the construction of 68 buildings that included 1 million square feet of academic and athletics space, 500,000 square feet of parking garages and 600,000-plus-square-feet of student residence halls. And let’s not forget the roads, utilities and jump-starting the 16-acre solar field. He was “the guiding force behind the architectural expression of the campus,” said Curtis Bullock, executive director of the FGCU Financing Corporation. “As you look around the campus, you see Jack Fenwick’s fingerprints everywhere.” He retired in February 2009, leaving behind a brick-and-mortar legacy for the ages.
LINWOOD FERGUSON
You won’t find Linwood Ferguson on any FGCU faculty or staff rosters, because he’s never actually been employed by the university. But if you’ve seen a great action photo taken during an FGCU Athletics event, there’s a good chance Ferguson was the guy with a laser eye behind the lens. What’s most remarkable about Ferguson’s incredible portfolio of photos not only of FGCU athletes, but of other sports, events, his travels, nature, even aviation — which he invites everyone to see and even use (with proper credit) at his photography website, captivephotons.com — is that photography is his hobby, not his profession. As an independent consultant at his LE Ferguson, LLC, he has been involved with systems and software development his entire professional career, still considers himself a programmer at heart and stays current on technology, but has recently been most involved in business tech applications. If the man who earned a master’s in computer science and bachelor’s in engineering at the University of Virginia is anywhere near as talented in his career specialty as he is playing with his pastime, you can be sure Ferguson is as sharp as one of his action photos.
MARY FRANCES HOWARD
Mary Frances Howard was a community icon with a long and distinguished history of community involvement dating back to World War II. When the University of South Florida established a branch campus in Fort Myers in 1983, “my mother decided an organization of ladies with a keen interest in education would benefit Southwest Florida,” says Ann Hamilton. She founded the Town & Gown Organization, modeling it after USF’s Tampa branch. She and her husband, W. Tommy Howard, were tireless supporters of Florida Gulf Coast University and upon the opening of the university in 1997 (and the closing of the USF branch), Town & Gown became a supporting organization for the fledgling university, hosting events honoring donors, scholarship recipients, top leadership and supporting the institution in a variety of ways. “At the very beginning, they were also the community outreach for the budding university,” Hamilton recalls, “spreading the word of what was coming and what the community could expect.” Her legacy lives on in Town & Gown – in which Hamilton serves as a board member – as well as the Mary Frances Howard Endowed Scholarship in Nursing. Howard Hall is named in honor of her husband, as is the Tommy Howard Lecture Series.
LEWIS JOHNSON
Following stints in hygiene administration at the University of Florida (10 years) and his alma mater, Bowling Green University in Ohio (8 years), Johnson came to FGCU in 2005 as its first director of environmental health and safety. Before he departed full-time to become an industrial hygienist with Lee Health in 2012, he helped establish and implement university standards for environmental compliance, emergency preparedness, sustainability, research safety and risk management. Under Johnson’s leadership, FGCU reduced annual hazardous waste shipments by 60 percent through recycling, substitution and neutralization during a period when the university doubled in size. Besides helping FGCU earn a national sustainability leadership award by Second Nature in 2012, he also contributed to the university’s Commuter Services Gold Partner Award in 2012, and Florida Division of Risk awards for loss control programs in 2009, 2011 and 2012. According to his LinkedIn profile, Johnson still has a hand in at FGCU as its scientific diving safety officer.
BARBARA KRELL
Few can lay claim to being part of the university before it had a name, but Barbara Krell can. She signed on to become executive assistant to founding President Roy McTarnaghan in July 1993. She was the fledgling university’s second employee. She ably served as the gatekeeper for six FGCU presidents – including three interims – retiring in 2015. In her 22 years on the job, she began by helping to create a university from scratch, starting with establishing credit card accounts and renting furniture for leased offices. It’s also where she met her husband, Duncan McBride, then associate vice president of administrative services. Krell thrived on solving problems and working with people from across the growing university. Asked how she felt about her job during a 2011 interview, she said, “I feel very honored to be here in this position – it’s exciting,” she said. “It’s not making widgets – it’s education for our community and our children.”
INGRID MARTINEZ-RICO
An assistant professor of Spanish and German, Ingrid Martinez-Rico was also passionate about effecting social change. She and her husband, Craig Heller, who also taught at FGCU, founded the Dominican Republic project, taking students to the Caribbean nation on spring break. The purpose, as she described it, was to “teach leadership skills and cross-cultural understanding, especially of children who work in the streets.” But on Feb. 5, 2008, Martinez-Rico was critically injured on her way to work when a loaded dump truck ran a red light and struck her car. She suffered extensive brain damage and has been unable to work or care for herself since. But FGCU students have carried on the project she so loved, making an annual journey with the Dominican Republic Outreach Program, now an official Registered Student Organization.
CHARLES MCKINNEY
As the first University Ombudsman, Charles McKinney essentially was FGCU’s founding watchdog – someone dedicated to holding the institution accountable whenever and wherever its actions were questioned. It’s an often-thankless job he held from the time he joined FGCU as part of the original staff in 1994 until he retired in 2009. Not only was McKinney “widely recognized as a leader in the campus community of faculty, staff and students who over the years have greatly relied on him as a trusted source of assistance, respect and conciliation,” as described in an April 2009 resolution by the FGCU Board of Trustees, but he was also a leader in the community at large. When McKinney was presented in 2011 with the Medal of Honor by the Assemblies of God — the highest award that organization gives to a layperson — Byron Klaus, president of the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, said that McKinney “represents the finest of lay leadership. … It is rare to find a person whose sterling professional records are coupled with an enduring commitment to local church membership and participation.”
PATRICIA PASDEN
After starting as an administrative assistant to the vice president of administrative services at FGCU in 2001, Pasden grew into what we might call the personification of The FGCU Effect — inspiring those who inspire others — when she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees while working at the university. Her drive and initiative weren’t lost on her superiors, and as Pasden furthered her academic credentials and accumulated on-the-job experience, she earned promotions that ascended her to the position of space coordinator for facilities planning and coordinator for the FGCU Financing Corp. by the time she retired in October 2016. Driven by strong personal commitment in support of students, faculty, staff, administrators and the community, she says the special thing about her career at FGCU was “watching the university’s growth in strength and numbers. Especially exciting was the physical-facility growth at FGCU, which I supported.”
BUTCH PERCHAN
Donors to FGCU’s athletics program are likely to know Stanley “Butch” Perchan as the easy-going guy who’s always ready with a joke. That lighthearted manner belies his effectiveness in helping to grow the university’s athletics program during his 14 years of service as the senior associate athletic director for external affairs. Today, he serves as an ambassador in Athletics Advancement for the FGCU Foundation. Perchan was one of the first athletic personnel to join FGCU, signing on in November 2000. Since then, Perchan created and implemented all aspects of fundraising, marketing and special events for the department. Under his direction, FGCU developed one of the most successful fundraising programs in the NCAA, attracting more than $18 million in gifts during a 10-year period from 2004 to 2014. In addition, he assisted with the design and creation of nearly $28 million in athletic facilities. In 2014, Director of Athletics Ken Kavanagh announced that the Green and Blue Award would be renamed the Stanley “Butch” Perchan Award. The award, which Perchan won in 2012, is presented annually to a department member who is a tremendous teammate to student-athletes and fellow staff alike, and who makes FGCU Athletics a better place. In January 2015, he was named the fourth ever Honorary Letterzwinner in Eagles’ history, joining the founding father of FGCU Athletics, former President Bill Merwin, along with Ben Hill Griffin III and Duane Swanson, Sr.
GLENN SABATKA
Before WGCU existed – it was WUSF way back when – Glenn Sabatka singlehandedly cranked up the engine that would become the public radio station’s Radio Reading Service, a lifeline for vision-impaired local residents who relied on the service’s volunteers to read them the news of the day. He recruited the volunteers, raised his own funds and, although his own vision was severely limited from contracting mosquito-borne encephalitis at 30, he spent three decades building the service into the powerhouse it is today. The guitar- and harmonica-playing, fedora-wearing man-about-town retired in 2014 but his legacy lives on.
ERIC STRAHORN
In saluting FGCU’s 20-year history, we include a professor who represents history itself. Eric Strahorn is an associate professor of history, a founding faculty member and an educator who appreciates that FGCU has allowed him the latitude to teach and study across a range of disciplinary fields. “For example, I teach a class on ‘The Great Books of Asia’ for the Honors College,” Strahorn said. “As a researcher, I’ve been able to connect with our sustainability mission; I’ve received national fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and the Library of Congress for my work on water security and conflict between China, India and Pakistan. I’ve been able to blend research and teaching, such as when I took Honors students on a research-based study abroad trip to Singapore in 2013.” Strahorn also is proud of the FGCU master’s program in history that he created, and that many graduates of this program have gone on to earn doctorates from prestigious universities. He also points out that FGCU history alums have flourished in careers in the National Park Service and in major national museums, beyond those who now research and teach historical knowledge as instructors and authors. “I have also been able to hire and mentor many successful history faculty,” Strahorn said. “I was only the second faculty to join the history program — today we have 11, and I’ve enjoyed helping my colleagues thrive.”
LINDA SUMMERS
The birth of FGCU’s civic engagement program took place on a half-sheet of legal paper on which Linda Summers jotted down ideas. From that – an idea that began as her job in Student Services at the Fort Myers branch of the University of South Florida ended as FGCU opened in 1997 – the university’s Center for Civic Engagement was born. Today, the Office of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement has become an example for other universities looking to create similar programs and, over 20 years, has guided more than 26,000 students through more than 2.6 million hours of service to community organizations and agencies. Over more than a decade, Summers grew the program from hundreds of students to thousands and always managed to be involved herself, accompanying students to the Guadalupe Center in Immokalee, running a Santa’s Secret Elves program that gave thousands of gifts to children enrolled in Child Care of Southwest Florida day-care centers and serving on the board of the Nations Association.
SUE THOMAS
She’s one of those entrusted with making the sometimes-stressful experience of going away to college a pleasant one – for students and their worried parents alike. As assistant director, marketing and summer conferences for FGCU Housing & Residence Life, this 14-year university staffer planned and hosted introductory open houses for Eagles’ Landing in North Lake Village as well as Everglades, Osprey and Eagle halls in South Village, showing all that FGCU would, indeed, be home away from home. In expressing her pride for being a part of FGCU’s growth, Thomas says, “We do so much more than provide a place for our students to sleep. In our residential communities, we provide residents with the resources, support and services to be successful in and out of the classroom. Our Residence Life programs are designed to help students meet interesting people, become involved in campus activities, succeed academically and have fun!”