Tradition detailed
NSU’s 50- year history, struggles covered in book
A group of businessmen had a vision 50 years ago for a Broward County institution for higher education.
The journey started with a simple storefront on Las Olas, but today, Davie- based Nova Southeastern University has multiple campuses and is the ninth- largest notforprofit independent university in theU. S.
Its growth and history are chronicled in Julian Pleasants’ “The Making of Nova Southeastern University: A Tradition of Innovation, 1964- 2014.” The retired University of Florida professor talked about the book during a recent brunch at NSU’s Alvin Sherman Library in Davie. The event was attended by key figures in the school’s history, including past presidents Abraham Fischler and Ray Ferrero Jr.
“I think most people are delighted that the history has been written,” Pleasants said. “The very fact that this school has survived is a great story, and now it’s being told.”
Pleasants talked about key moments in NSU’s evolution, themysterious disappearance of Nova University’s oceanographic research vessel the Gulf Stream and its crew in 1975, earlier financial struggles and how the late Leo Goodwin Sr., founder of GEICO, left about $ 16 million to the university, though it took seven years to get it due to litigation.
The wheels for an NSU book started turning in 2009. Provost Frank De Piano was concerned the history of the institution would slip away because Warren Winstead, the university’s first president, had died a few years earlier. Hewanted Lydia Acosta, vice president of information services and university librarian, to take on an oral history project on all of the presidents.
Acosta, who brought Pleasants aboard, said the project’s scope broadened to include administra--
tion members and former faculty. The decision was then made to do a book.
“I’m very proud,” she said. “… Some histories are dry, but he is a very good writer. He is meticulous about detail. It’s all well- researched. He tells the story of the institution, warts and all.”
Pleasants credits De Piano for ensuring there were nodistractions or outside influence from the university. He spent months reading documents and doing other research.
“A lot of the names were unusual and different, I didn’t understand many of the relationships, so it took me a long time to figure out what this institution was about,” he said. “… It was a challenge to write an evenhanded history of the university…[ but] I think Imade sound judgments about mistakes and pointed them out, but on the other hand, the overall development of this university was positive and has been successful. So that’s really the focus on the book — from a mailbox to the current campus.”