Faculty & Friends Club of Florida State University

1926 – 2003

“In September 1926 wives of the professors of F.S.C.W. met together to form a social organization without officers and without dues. The object was to get better acquainted with each other and to welcome the new members and make them feel at home. This organization was called “The College Dames.” The first meeting was held at the home of  Mrs.  E. V. Gage with Mrs. Paul Finner and Mrs. Leland Lewis being joint hostesses. It was decided to meet once a month during the school year at the homes of the different members. (There were 21 charter members.)”

“There is no further written record until April 1927, when the club met with Mrs. Paul Finner. At that time the members voted to elect two officers, a president and a secretary-treasurer. Thus ended the Age of Innocence.”

From then until February 26, 1929, the curtain is lifted only twice, in the minutes of two meetings. Yet it is well known that the monthly meetings were held regularly all that time. That there was a certain amount of activity going on is indicated by the statement in the minutes of the February 1928 meeting that the treasurer’s report showed assets of $300. Mention was also made of a plan to frame a constitution. To the objective eye it appears, therefore, that the infant club, though with no constitution at all, showed remarkable vitality even in those early years.”

As written by

Alice Kent Smith in 1946

In 1946, to commemorate the Club’s 20th anniversary, Alice Kent Smith wrote a short history. Her format was a good one but too many years have passed and too many events have occurred to use it here. Most of the sources are the same so I have used excerpts from that history and information from the yearly books of the officers to the current time. Most of these records are now in Strozier’s Special Collections department.

Without Mrs. Elmer Smith’s history, we would have practically no information on what she called “The Legendary Years.” We thank her for her excellent work.

It did seem best to try to report chronologically and to report a few notes of human interest, but this history would be a thick book if all the people involved and all Club events were mentioned.

Jane Waggaman

August 2003

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