5/16/2023 0 Comments Namechanger fly![]() “I probably won’t do it, but it is an interesting idea.”Īn FPC student but an Eckerd College graduate “We will need a lot more, but this would pay off the short-term debt and give us a base endowment from which to build,” I responded. It came in a surprising question: “Will $10 million do it?” Duke and Cornelius Vanderbilt will be a source of joy and pride for your friends and family.” I stopped, waiting for his response. “I know you don’t want that, but to be in the company of John Harvard, Leland Stanford, James B. Are there any circumstances under which you would give the College $10 million? If you would do that, it would be an honor for me to recommend that the College become Eckerd College. “The College is high-quality, private, innovative, and has great potential. I paused, catching my breath, wanting to finish before getting his response. If you really want to leave a legacy, you will put your name on this college and thus ensure your values in perpetuity. And the day is coming when you will not be running the company. You will likely merge or be absorbed by a larger company. “As we have talked before, someday the lights will go out on Eckerd Drugs. We need help and need it fast.” Then, my punchline. But that huge debt from the early years is killing us. We have a splendid academic program with bright students and outstanding faculty. “Jack, as a trustee, you know the situation at the College well.” I paused, swallowed deeply, braced my back, and with all the executive and persuasive rhetoric I could muster, continued. We greeted warmly and I moved immediately to the issue. I drove to his Clearwater office in early 1971. He still owns one of the Eckerd College RX for your mind T-shirts. I live with an Eckerd College grad,” he adds with a chuckle. ![]() “The biggest thing people didn’t want was to have the name change sprung on us,” he says. But everything worked out.”Īfter graduation, Berger married his college sweetheart, Katie (Tyler) Berger ’73, and eventually retired as a librarian at Duke University, for some 27 years. “We were concerned whether the College would survive. “But he couldn’t get past the vice president,” Berger says. At the time, the family owned a winter home on St. Wireman, aware that students were worried about the future of their college, met with them in 1971 and explained that in addition to Jack Eckerd, he had approached members of the Busch family, owners of the Anheuser-Busch beer companies and the St. It was really interesting that he supported the College and even featured it in his campaign ads when he was running for governor and the Senate.”īerger says that then–FPC president Billy O. ![]() ![]() “We knew Jack Eckerd was a very conservative Republican, and FPC was more the opposite. “The summer before, we all got these letters saying the name change was happening,” Berger says. He was one of about 200 students in the FPC Class of 1972-the last FPC graduating class. His senior year, Berger was an East Asian studies student living in Kappa Complex. “They had me come up for a visit, and they put me up in a hotel. “They recruited me, and to this day, I do not know why,” he says from his home in Durham, North Carolina. He grew up in Miami and didn’t find FPC-it found him. Smack in the middle of all this was Ken Berger ’72. Others worried the College would change its focus and direction. Graduating seniors worried that potential employers, unaware of the name change, might think FPC no longer existed. Petersburg, Florida, news of the College’s upcoming name change to Eckerd College prompted some students to print Eckerd College RX for Your Mind T-shirts and plant signs near the campus entrance that pointed to Eckerd Drug College. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |