J. Stanley Marshall, who was president of Florida State University during one of its most tumultuous periods, died Sunday afternoon.Marshall, 91, died at his home in Westminster Oaks retirement community. Marshall suffered several cardiac events in recent years, including a heart attack in May. He had been under hospice care.Marshall was president of FSU from 1969 to 1976. After his presidency, he founded and operated an electronic security company, Sonitrol (1978-1987); ran unsuccessfully for state education commissioner (1986); and founded the James Madison Institute (1987), a conservative think tank. Marshall served on the Florida Constitutional Revision Commission, the first Board of Trustees for FSU, the Bethune-Cookman University Board of Trustees and the state Board of Governors, which oversees Florida’s 11 state universities”His legacy is that he was a Renaissance Man,” said Robert McClure, president and CEO of the James Madison Institute. “High school science teacher, university president, business owner, ran for education commissioner, started a statewide think tank with tremendous national influence. A tremendous influence and mentor. And always a gentleman regardless of the political stripe of people he was dealing with. That’s his legacy.”James Stanley Marshall’s tenure as FSU president coincided with the rise of student activism at FSU – which earned FSU the title “Berkeley of the South” because of the proliferation of student demonstrations and protests.During his presidency, FSU students held major demonstrations against the Vietnam War and Kent State shootings. They began a chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and formed a Black Student Union. They marched for changes in racial and gender policies, started a student-taught “free university” and even started the craze of streaking.Marshall, a political conservative, disagreed with student demonstrators on almost all issues, but prided himself on respecting students’ First Amendment rights. He listened calmly to their protests, whether they were marching on his president’s house or trying to take over his administrative offices in Westcott Hall — while often infuriating them with his refusal to accede to their demands.As he wrote in his 2006 memoir, “The Tumultuous Sixties. Campus Unrest and Student Life at a Southern University,” his goal was to maintain order on campus.”My charge seemed clear: Keep the University open and operating in a close to to normal manner,” Marshall wrote. “I was mindful of the disorder that had caused destruction of property, the loss of life and the breakdown of education services at other universities and I saw nothing in the picture at FSU to convince me it couldn’t not happen here.”One of Marshall’s chief antagonists was student activist “Radical” Jack Lieberman, who Marshall expelled from FSU after several confrontations.”Though we had big disagreements and he treated me too harshly, I think he was a good person who wanted to do well,” Lieberman said from Miami, where he runs a business that makes political signs and paraphernalia. “He did what he thought was right and I did what I thought was right. Sometimes good people have conflicts.”Marshall is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, Shirley, five children and 13 grandchildren.Funeral arrangements are pending.http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/2014/06/08/fsu-president-marshall-dies/10205711/
