Boswell Dedication Ceremony

Noise and excitement filled the Florida College Student Center on Friday morning, August 15, at the dedication ceremony for the new Boswell residence hall. For everyone present it marked the climax of a project long in the making, and one that carries historic import for the college.

President C.G. “Colly” Caldwell ’63 opened the event with introductory remarks and recognition of honored guests in the audience. Temple Terrace’s mayor, police chief, and other important members of the community were present, as were several board members and longtime friends of the college. Many members of the Boswell family were also present for the special event.

Jack Peddy, representing the Boswell family, led the opening prayer. Take Note, an capella singing group made up of Florida College students and alums, then sang a medley of patriotic songs.

Temple Terrace mayor Joseph Affronti, Sr. made a few remarks, congratulating the College on such an “ambitious project,” and what will be an “imposing addition that will make [Temple Terrace] proud.”

Dan Burton, a board member and chair of the architectural committee, gave weight to the event when he noted that this was the “single largest building project on this campus.” It was a project, he said, that was approached with “much trepidation and many prayers.” Those prayers were answered, he affirmed, and the execution of the project was “truly a Florida College extended family effort.”

The new residence hall continues to bear the Boswell name as did the dormitory it replaced. Lee Boswell was an original member of the board of directors at FC, and he and his wife Margaret played an indispensable role in the growth and functioning of the school. Mr. Boswell died in 1994, and “his heritage on this campus needs to be preserved,” Burton said.

Bob Owen ’50, former president of FC from 1982 to 1991, and a son-in-law of the Boswells, continued those thoughts. He relayed touching and humorous memories of Mr. and Mrs. Boswell, who were the parents of Owen’s wife Janelle ’50. The three most important things to the Boswells, Owen said, were “the church, the family, the school.” “In the family,” Owen explained, “when you said ‘the school,’ you were saying Florida College.”

 

“Many would tell you that the college wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the Boswells,” Owen concluded.

President Caldwell drew the comments to a close by thanking the chief architect, Sol Fleischman, for all his work on the buildings. Fleischman is a premier Mediterranean revival architect in the Tampa area, and he has himself expressed how proud he is of these dormitories. They succeed, Caldwell said, in “preserving the heritage of the school while bringing us into modern times.”

Following the ceremony in the student center, guests walked over to Boswell Hall, where the Boswell family cut the ribbon and welcomed guests inside to look around.