Rest in Peace President Humphries

Today was the memorial service for Dr. Frederick Humphries, the former president of Florida A&M University.

Although I have been involved in higher education in one way or another for most of my professional life, one of the most rewarding experiences I have had was to serve on the initial Board of Trustees of Florida A&M University.

In 2001, I was finishing a term on the State Board of Community Colleges.  A new system of higher education governance had been put into place by the Florida Legislature.  The Governor had the opportunity to appoint the members of the new boards at each of Florida’s then 11 universities.  I was fortunate to be named to the initial board of FAMU.

You cannot be a lifelong resident of Florida and not understand the importance of FAMU and the significant impact that Dr. Frederick Humphries had not only on FAMU, but on the state and nation.  Having been actively involved in higher education and the Tallahassee community, I knew Dr. Humphries, but we were not, at that time, close friends.

About six months before the change in the governance structure and the new board appointments, he and I were in the Tampa airport and our flight home was canceled.  I rented a car and we drove back to Tallahassee late in the evening along with the then lobbyist for FSU, Mary Kaye Cariseo Detzner.  I can still remember much of what we talked about that night.

I got home that night exhausted, but also amazed at the discussions the three of us had during those five hours in the car.  Fred Humphries had the amazing ability to have a keen understanding of national and state issues, but also know about some of the more detailed information that was happening on his campus.  This was not long after FAMU had been named the Time Magazine Princeton Review College of the Year.  FAMU was on the rise and ranked number one in the nation (ahead of Harvard) in the number of enrolled National Achievement Scholars in the nation.

Fred Humphries told us about his vision for FAMU during that drive, which included increasing the number of PhD graduates in the STEM fields.  But he believed that if you placed the right support around a student who may have struggled in high school, that student could be successful at a top ranked university.

And he believed in the mission of HBCUs.  He firmly believed that students, especially those with different experiences, should spend time at a university where people had shared experiences.

Shortly after I was appointed to the board, I heard from someone that Dr. Humphries was concerned about my loyalty because I had a degree from Florida State University.  The history between the two institutions had certainly been rocky over the years.  However, during his tenure a joint engineering college approved shortly before he took office, grew in stature.  In addition, there is a strong political connection between the establishment of the College of Medicine at FSU and the reestablishment of the FAMU College of Law.  Today the relationship between the two institutions is strong.

Fred Humphries was, in many ways, larger than life.  He was not only a large man – he was a brilliant scholar and had a strong desire to help students succeed.  I will never know if he ever became convinced that I was committed to the FAMU mission, but I can tell you that I spend a good amount of my time today at FSU leading a campus working to emulate some of the very positive initiatives that I saw and continue to see FAMU put into place.

Florida A&M is a national treasure.  Fred Humphries deserves significant credit for many of the great things the university is know for today.   Rest in peace Mr. President.  Let all of us (graduates or not) who are part of the FAMU Family  continue to fight for the mission and success of this great university.