J. Stanley Marshall

J. Stanley Marshall (January 27, 1923 – June 8, 2014) was an American physicist, science educator, administrator and college president.

Born in Cheswick, Pennsylvania, Marshall grew up in rural Pennsylvania.

His parents Walter and Mildred were farmers: Stanley was the last of seven children and the only male.

Marshall worked at the Duquesne Light Company while attending college.

He enlisted in the Army in 1943 before his junior year in college and served in World War II as a combat medic.

The army discharged him in 1946 and he returned to school, graduating with a BS from Slippery Rock State Teachers College in 1947.

He was a high school science teacher at Mynderse Academy in Seneca Falls, New York while earning a MS in 1950 from Syracuse University.

For one year, he also coached basketball and track.

Marshall was a physics professor at the State University of New York at Cortland while pursuing his 1956 Ph.D., also at Syracuse.

In 1958 Marshall was recruited by the dean of education at Florida State University to establish a Department of Science Education in response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik.

America's leaders were concerned about a deficiency in science education.

Marshall hosted a summer program for science teachers that was the first integrated program held at FSU.

That seminar also began a long alliance with Bethune-Cookman College.

The science education program graduated exceptional teachers for high schools in Florida and the university became highly regarded in educational circles.

FSU was instrumental in establishing a science high school in NATO ally, Turkey.

Marshall made numerous trips to visit and assist during the school’s early years.

He chaired the department until 1967.

In 1967, Marshall was promoted to Dean at the College of Education, then on February 12, 1969 he was chosen by President John E. Champion as the first executive vice president.

Champion resigned a week later, nine tumultuous months after he censored a story containing 4-letter words in the student's literary magazine, A Legend.

The president believed the article was "inappropriate and too insensitive" for the FSU campus.

That decision brought protests by students and faculty who considered it suppression of artistic expression.

The clashes with the faculty continued in addition to demonstrations by students.

Following Champion's resignation, the Florida Board of Regents named Marshall as Acting President.

One hundred days later, they appointed Marshall as the 9th president of FSU.

He served as president at Florida State University from February 1969 to August 1976.

Marshall's tenure at FSU matched the increase of student activism across the country as well as locally.

FSU earned the moniker, "Berkeley of the South".

Students held large demonstrations against the war in Vietnam and the Kent State shootings.

A chapter of Students for a Democratic Society was formed and a Black Student Union.

Students marched to change gender and racial policy, began a "free university" taught by students and joined the college craze of streaking.

The politically conservative Marshall disagreed with the demonstrators on most everything but respected their First Amendment rights.

He calmly listened to their grievances, but steadfastly refused to accede to their requests and demands.

Marshall refused give official student organization status to the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) so as to deny them the use of University facilities, which the group had used previously.

The policy of the Florida Board of Regents supported FSU's decision, so the SDS, which advocated non-violent civil disobedience, protested at the entrance to the Westcott Building.

The SDS attempted to defy a court injunction on March 4, 1969 but were stopped by sheriff's deputies from Leon County who carried unloaded rifles with bayonets.

There was no violence, but they arrested 58 students.

Marshall later said he was concerned about violence and didn't want FSU to be the "Kent State of the South".

Many students and faculty considered his response to student protests to be an overreaction to a perceived threat.

The relationship between Marshall and the FSU faculty was sometimes difficult.

He was often criticized for failing to communicate with the faculty who in turn opposed many changes that Marshall instituted, some of which were later reversed.