Ted Turner, chairman of Turner Enterprises, Inc. and chairman of the Turner Foundation will be installed as the 80th Honorary Chancellor during the Founders Day Convocation on March 14.
Many know Turner for founding the Cable News Network, CNN and Turner Network Televison, TNT. Turner will be speaking to students as part of Florida Southern College’s Homecoming celebration.
Dr. Robert Tate, vice president for advancement said, “Every year we celebrate Founders Day in the spring. Part of that tradition is choosing a chancellor. Walter Cronkite was one, Gerald Ford and Frank Lloyd Wright were as well. Ted Turner falls right in line,” Tate said.
The convocation will begin opening events for FSC’s Homecoming at 11 a.m. to noon in Branscomb Auditorium.
“Some people we’ve had in the past have had connections with Florida Southern,” Tate said. “We look for people who have been very successful, or just love to give back, I think Turner is one of those people and I think he would be a great speaker for the students to
hear. We try to pick people who are interesting to students.”
A student suggested Turner as a speaker to President Anne Kerr earlier this year. He was chosen by a selection committee consisting of faculty members, those on the board of trustees and a graduate of FSC.
“We always try to find someone exciting, we always want to try to find someone who has done something important in their careers, because we think all of you will,” Tate said.
The school will give several distinguished awards, the honor walk student will be named and the Ben and Janis Wade Outstanding Teacher Award will be presented. Four alumni have already been recognized for the Alumni Achievement Award: Richard Jensen ’59, Charles ’65 and Anne ’66 Reynolds and David Rogers ’82.
Tate said novelist Ted Bell will be this spring’s commencement speaker. He is known for his suspense novels “Hawke,” “Assassin,” “Pirate” and “Spy,” as well as for “Warlord” and “Phantom.”
Bell got his start as a journalist and later worked a Chairman and World-Wide Creative Director of Young & Rubicam, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies.
Photo Courtsey of Yvonne Bowens via Creative Commons
