Faculty Emeritus Site

Welcome!

PROFESSORS EMERITI OF FLORIDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Having served Florida Institute of Technology for many years as full time active professors, the Professors Emeriti wish to continue to contribute to the growth of academic excellence of the University. To provide a formal means of coordinating their contributions, this organization is formed.

(A few notes on navigation for this page: Click on the menu at the right to access the pages for mission, members, officers, events, newsletter and other items, some of which are not completed - more to come later. Your comments and suggestions for changes or other features are solicited)

Watch This Space for Images of Professors Emeriti In Action

Select Photographs from the Photo Gallery will appear in the space below and in the column at the right.
Send me your action shots (see contact us page) for inclusion in these ever-changing sections!

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Professsors Emeriti Handbook

The Silver Panther

Annual Events Schedule

Click Here for the Recurring Annual Events Schedule

Events Calendar 2009 / 2010

November 14 – President’s Picnic 12:00 – 4:00 All Faith Center Field

December 15 – President’s Holiday Party 3:00 – 5:00 Hartley Room

February 18 – Emeritus Luncheon 12:00 – 2:00 Board Room

April 22 – Honors Convocation 3:30 Gleason Auditorium

Week of May 1: Reception for new Emeriti (date TBA)

Past Events

Annual Professors Emeriti Lunch, February 12, 2009, sponsored by the Office of the President

FIT History Committee

Florida Tech History Committee gets the ball rolling for establishing an archive to preserve and protect historic and valuablememorabilia and records of the Univesity.... more Informaton to come! Check out "Links" on the menu, upper right, for a new library display on the history of FIT

Under the leadership of Professor Emeritus Harry Weber, the university has formed a History Committee whose purpose, in cooperation with the Professors Emeriti, is to identify and collect memorabilia, publications, photographs, documents and other items of historic value. Another major goal is to promote the establishment of a permanent welcome center for the university. Professors Emeriti are urged to participate by providing and collecting documents, photographs and memorabilia for this ambitious project. Many items collected will be on display during the upcoming 50th Anniversary Celebration

Fellow Emeriti on Foreign and Domsestic Travel

To see what emeriti Iver Duedall has been up to lately, and where other emeriti have gone, click on "Silver Panthers on the Go"

News from Professors Emeriti - Near and Far Click on the current "Silver Panther"

Emeriti "Profile of the Month"

Richard E. Enstice

Dick Enstice is a Florida Tech home grown whose career at the university spans 41 years, almost as long as the university itself has existed. Although Dick spent his childhood in New Jersey, his great grandmother had been a Floridian since 1921. Dick has fond memories of spending his summers fishing and hunting in Melbourne where his great uncle ran a motel in the 40's and 50's. It is no surprise then that when it came time to go to college, he chose to enroll in a combined program offered by Stetson and the University of Florida, called a 3/2, after which he would have had a BS from Stetson and an engineering degree from Gainesville. He enjoyed the atmosphere at Stetson and dreaded moving to a large university at the end of three years. In 1966, he chose to take summer courses in engineering at Florida Institute of Technology to prepare himself for the leap into the big pond and essentially never left, obtaining his BS in electrical engineering from FIT in 1969.
After his graduation in 1966, Harry Weber who was the department head, asked him if he wanted to become a graduate student, which he did, and Harry provided him with a GSA to carry him through until he got his masters in 1971. He became an instructor on the faculty immediately after obtaining his masters degree and remembers fondly his years of teaching "all the courses no one else wanted to teach!" He, like most long term faculty at Florida Tech, enjoyed the sense of ownership in the early years, of being part of the creativity, contributing to the direction the university would take. And like most other faculty who have risen through the ranks to administrative posts, Dick still thinks of teaching as his favorite job. Dick had a goal to get his PHD and become a university Vice President by the time he was 40. Because he would have had to quit his job as an instructor in the department in order to get his PHD in Electrical Engineering and his wife and children would have had to fend for themselves, he opted to keep his job, attending the Science Education PHD program offered in the evening instead. In 1986, he received his PHD in Science Education and was promoted to Vice President for Administrative Affairs at the age of 41, only a year behind his personal schedule. He continued to teach one class every term however, throughout his career.
Because he was at Florida Tech from 1966 - 2007, Dick, like other pioneers, has witnessed the tremendous growth from the early days of the Brevard Engineering College with part time students in borrowed space for classrooms all the way to the present campus which houses six colleges and 58 degree programs.
Dick's life has come full circle. Now in retirement, he spends his time reading, doing "quality" maintenance work around the house, enjoying time with his wife, and, yes, hunting and fishing one day each week just as he did as a boy. He has certainly earned the rest.

Editor's note: See the full article about Dick in the current Silver Panther

Interesting Facts:

With an average tenure of 20 years at Florida Tech, the current 60 Professors Emeriti served the University for a combined total of 1,200 YEARS !!