Archives: Famous Phis

T.K. Wetherell

Dr. Thomas Kent “T.K.” Wetherell became the 13th president of Florida State University on January 6, 2003. A career educator with more than 30 years of experience in the State of Florida’s educational system, Dr. Wetherell is the only FSU president with experience in all four major divisions within higher education, having held positions in the offices of academic affairs, student services, business affairs, and college development. He has held leadership positions in two-year as well as four-year colleges, and he has served as a faculty member in both public and private institutions of higher education.

An outstanding advocate for higher education who has been called the state’s most politically astute university president, Wetherell has proven to be a leader among his peers, and he pushed successfully for universities to assess a tuition differential in an effort to make up for budget shortfalls and continue to offer high-quality education to students.

Soon after assuming the presidency, Wetherell, the first university alumnus to serve as president of Florida State, launched the innovative and ambitious Pathways of Excellence initiative that included hiring additional faculty members in interdisciplinary clusters built around academic themes, substantial investments in new facilities, and significant investments in graduate-level programs with emphasis on creating new interdisciplinary doctoral programs.

Wetherell scored a major coup in 2005 when The Florida State University lured the Applied Superconductivity Center to campus from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where it had been housed for more than two decades. The center has become the material research division of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.

The most visible component of the Pathways initiative may be the $800 million worth of new construction and renovations, including state-of-the-art chemistry, biological science, psychology and medicine buildings, that have transformed the northwest corner of campus into a research quadrangle. In addition, other projects include several new research facilities, three new residence halls, dining halls, parking garages, a general classroom building and the Alumni Center.

Under Wetherell’s leadership, the university saw its students reach unprecedented national academic recognition, including three students who were named Rhodes Scholars — one of the oldest and most prestigious awards for international study. The success was in part due to the Office of National Fellowships, which guided students to win more than 40 nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships, including three Truman Scholarships, three Goldwater Scholarships, the Udall Scholarship and 22 Fulbright Fellowships, since Wetherell established it in 2005.

During Wetherell’s tenure as president, Florida State University’s College of Medicine, the nation’s first new fully accredited public allopathic medical school in the past 25 years, graduated its first class in 2005, opened six regional campuses, and established important research collaborations with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.

Dr. Wetherell has been inducted into Florida State University’s Hall of Fame and was the recipient of the prestigious Moore-Stone Award, the Circle of Gold Award and the university’s Distinguished Service Award. In addition, he has also been awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Flagler College.

Dr. Wetherell served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1980 to 1992, the last two years as Speaker of the House. During his tenure in the House he served as chairman of the appropriations committee and the higher education committee. The Miami Herald named him one of the Top Ten Legislative Leaders in the House each year from 1987 until 1992.

A third-generation Floridian, Dr. Wetherell was born on December 22, 1945 in Daytona Beach, Florida. He attended Port Orange Elementary School and Mainland Senior High School, where he was active in service clubs, student government and athletics. He attended Florida State University on a football scholarship and played on the 1963-67 football teams. He still holds the record for the longest kickoff return in Florida State University history. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social studies education from FSU in 1967 and 1968, respectively. He earned a doctorate in education administration from FSU in 1974.

Wetherell is married to Virginia B. Wetherell, who served as Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from 1991 to 1998 and previously served as a state legislator representing Pensacola. She currently is president of Wetherell Consulting Services. They are the parents of three children, Kent, Blakely and Page, and have two grandchildren. Wetherell’s personal interests include athletics, outdoor recreation, travel and aviation.

Robert Witt

Robert Witt serves as the chief executive officer of the Alabama System, Chancellor, exercising such executive powers as are necessary for the appropriate governance of the System. The Chancellor is the principal link between the Board’s responsibility for policy and each President’s responsibility for operations. The Chancellor reports directly to the Board regarding the current affairs of all components of the System and discusses with the Board basic issues, new directions, and policy recommendations. The Chancellor directs the planning, development, and appraisal of all activities of the System, and is responsible for their coordination and implementation. The Chancellor also provides linkage between the System and various components of state government, as well as other educational groups and organizations.

On March 5, 2012, Dr. Robert E. Witt was unanimously elected Chancellor of The University of Alabama System, which is Alabama’s largest higher education enterprise. Comprised of doctoral research universities in Birmingham, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa as well as the UAB Health System, the UA System budget exceeds $4.6 billion with student enrollment of 57,000 and more than 26,000 employees.

Prior to becoming UA System Chancellor, Dr. Witt was President of The University of Alabama, assuming that post in 2003. During his nine-year tenure he was responsible for successfully undertaking an ambitious plan for academic growth and achievement that has positioned UA as one of America’s fastest growing public universities. The University of Alabama’s Fall 2011 freshman class was the largest in history and ranked second in the nation among public universities in the enrollment of National Merit Scholars.

Before being recruited to Alabama, Dr. Witt was President of the University of Texas at Arlington from 1995-2003. He began his 35-year career in higher education in the state of Texas in 1968 when he joined the business school faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, rising through the ranks as chair and associate dean. In 1985 he was named dean of the UT business school, which was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the top seven schools of business in the world.

Robert Witt received his B.A. in economics from Bates College, his M.B.A. from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College, and his Ph.D. from Penn State University. In 2011 he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor, comprised of 100 living Alabamians elected on the basis of service to the state.

Neil Abercrombie

Abercrombie is a graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He began his political career in 1975 after winning a seat in the Hawaii House of Representatives. He served in the Hawaii House until 1979, when he was elected to the Hawaii State Senate. Upon the resignation of Cecil Heftel, who resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives to run for Governor, Abercrombie was appointed to his vacant seat in 1986. Abercrombie served the remainder of Heftel’s term on an interim basis until 1987. He served on the Honolulu City Council from 1988 to 1990 before returning to Congress in 1991. Abercrombie served nine consecutive terms in the House from 1993 to 2010, representing Hawaii’s 1st congressional district, which comprises urban Honolulu.

After incumbent Governor Linda Lingle was term limited and prevented from running for reelection, Abercrombie declared his candidacy for Governor in March 2009. In September 2010, Abercrombie won in the Democratic primary, defeating four Democratic challengers, including Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, with 59% of the vote. Abercrombie went on to face Republican nominee, Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona, in the general election.

On November 2, 2010, Abercrombie and running mate Brian Schatz defeated Aiona with 57% of the vote. Abercrombie was sworn into office on December 6, 2010. He tried to deal with various problems of the state that included the aftermath of the great recession, restructuring labor union pensions and other issues

Brock Adams

Brockman “Brock” Adams was an American politician and member of Congress. Adams was a Democrat from Washington and served as a U.S. Representative, Senator, and United States Secretary of Transportation before retiring in January 1993.

Jean Baptiste Adoue

Jean Baptiste Adoue, Jr. was the mayor of Dallas, Texas from 1951 to 1953. In 1942 and re-elected in 1943 and 1945, he was sitting at the city council where he became well known and appreciated. This resulted in a 1949 mayoral election in which he participated where he lost to Wallace H. Savage, though he received the most votes as an elected council member.

By 1951, another mayoral vote by the public brought him into office. During his term as a mayor which resulted in clashes between his office and number of unions, he passed a public-works program with which the Love Field would be expanded. When re-election came, Adoue didn’t run for a second term as he saw his health decline. He went back to his banker job after his mayor office term where he worked till his death on November 17, 1956, while working. He was buried at Crown Hill Memorial Mausoleum, Dallas, Texas.

John Allen

John Beard Allen was an American politician from the state of Washington.

He was a Republican Delegate to the United States House of Representatives in 1889, and after Washington achieved statehood, he was elected and served in the United States Senate from 1889 to 1893. After the legislature failed to select a Senator for the following term, Allen was appointed by the Governor of Washington, but was not seated by the Senate.

After leaving public office, Allen went into private law practice in Seattle, Washington, where he died of cardiovascular disease in 1903 aged 57.

John B. Allen Elementary School was dedicated in 1904, part of the Seattle School District. Seattle School District architect, James Stephens, designed the two-story, wooden building, which housed 278 students at the end of its first year. In 1917, the District opened a second brick building and enrollment increased, peaking at 758 in 1933.

Forrest Anderson

Forrest Howard Anderson was an American politician and judge who served as the 17th governor of Montana from 1969 to 1973.

Anderson was a Democrat. He served in the Montana House of Representatives from 1943 to 1945. He was a Lewis and Clark County Attorney from 1945 to 1947, an Associate Justice on the Montana Supreme Court from 1953 to 1957, a delegate to the 1956 Democratic National Convention, and Montana Attorney General from 1957 to 1968.

Elected as Governor of Montana in 1968, Anderson was sworn in on January 6, 1969, and he was in office until January 1, 1973. During his tenure, he combined more than one hundred state agencies into nineteen departments, and authorized the 1972 Constitutional Convention and implemented the new constitution once it was ratified.

John Anderson

John Alexander Anderson was a six-term U.S. Congressman from Kansas (1879-1891), and the second President of Kansas State Agricultural College (1873-1879). Anderson was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania in 1834, and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1853. His father, William Caldwell Anderson, served as the fourth President of Miami University during this time, holding that position from 1849 to 1854. Future U.S. President Benjamin Harrison was his roommate for a time in college.

Jerry Apodaca

Raymond S. “Jerry” Apodaca is the 24th Governor of New Mexico.

In 1965, he was elected to the New Mexico Senate, in which he served for four two-year terms from 1966 to 1974. Apodaca was elected governor of New Mexico as a Democrat in 1974, becoming the first Hispanic governor in the U.S. since 1918, along with neighboring Arizona Governor Raúl Héctor Castro, who was also elected that year. Apodaca narrowly defeated his Republican opponent, Joe Skeen, later a long-term member of the United States House of Representatives from New Mexico. In the campaign, Jimmy Carter, the outgoing governor of Georgia, came to New Mexico to campaign for Apodaca. There Carter met Timothy Kraft, then the executive director of the New Mexico Democratic Party who in 1975 joined the Carter presidential campaign, worked in the Carter administration, and was the 1980 Carter campaign manager.

Apodaca reorganized the New Mexico state government to create a cabinet system with twelve departments. He consolidated agencies and abolished several boards and commissions. He also increased numerous taxes during his tenure. In 1978, President Carter appointed Apodaca, who was constitutionally ineligible to seek reelection as governor, as the chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. After his term as governor, Apodaca became involved in publishing Hispanic-audience periodicals. He was a member of the University of New Mexico Board of Regents from 1985 to 1991.

Jodey Arrington

Jodey Arrington is a proven leader and a lifelong conservative who is committed to fighting for the people of West Texas to ensure their views and values are heard in Washington, D.C. His principles of faith, family and hard work run deep, where he’s a tireless advocate for significantly cutting government spending, ensuring a strong national defense, and protecting the freedoms we all richly deserve.

A graduate of Plainview High School, Jodey attended Texas Tech University earning a BA in Political Science and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.

Through the years, his ability to tackle tough issues and get results for our country, state and local communities have taken him from the South Plains, to Austin, to the White House, and back again. His experience includes advising then Gov. George W. Bush on appointments to state boards and commissions, recruiting conservative business leaders from across the state to provide oversight and accountability to agencies responsible for agriculture, higher education, healthcare, and criminal justice.

He later became an Advisor to President Bush in the White House, responsible for helping assemble President Bush’s leadership team in critical areas such as agriculture, water, and energy.

After leaving the White House, Jodey served as Chief of Staff to the FDIC Chairman and Amarillo native Don Powell, where he was instrumental in helping cut millions of dollars in waste and inefficiencies, reducing regulatory burdens on community banks, and pass the U.S. deposit insurance reform.

In 2007, Jodey’s leadership focused on the Texas Tech University System, serving as Chief of Staff to Chancellor and former Congressman, Kent Hance. He was later appointed as Vice Chancellor of Research and Commercialization, where he was instrumental in the record growth of the Texas Tech University System. He also helped bring jobs and millions of dollars in economic development to West Texas, increasing technology commercialization, and fostering strong ties with the local business community.

Jodey is President of Scott Laboratories, Inc., a company responsible for commercializing health care innovations, including a new telemedicine venture.

Jodey lives in Lubbock with his wife, Anne, and their three children. They are active members of their local church where he teaches Sunday school and serves as an elder. Jodey is active in the local community, serving on numerous boards and committees related to Christian ministry, economic development, and renewable energy.