Fruits of Their Labor

A hand sifts through the soil of a freshly tilled field, the dark earth falling between outstretched fingers. Dirt may seem common, but the type of crop grown and how it will taste depends on the earth in which it is planted. The same can be said for businesses. The foundation guides the result.

Jeff Gargiulo (B.S. ’74) and Valerie Boyd (B.S. ’74) have planted their wine business, Gargiulo Vineyards, in the fertile soil of family, history and lessons learned at Florida State University.

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Immersed in Nature

Stepping carefully over logs and roots in the crystalline water, a virtual conga line of newly-minted swamp walkers take their first strides into a wet wilderness.

Feathery pond cypress knit a bright canopy overhead, creating a cool microclimate filled with a thousand shades of green. Giant leather ferns rise from the gentle sway of the water; bromeliads in all shapes and sizes drape from tree limbs and swarm down cypress trunks.

As the group splashes into a small clearing, they see a giant stepladder planted between the cypress knees. At the top of this perch, Florida State graduate Elam Stoltzfus (B.S. ’88) takes it all in, collecting footage from an unorthodox perspective for a documentary on one of his favorite places, the Big Cypress Swamp.

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The Land that Time Forgot

Across from the abandoned, former Florida Highway Patrol Academy, nearly covered by trees, is part of the concrete-block foundation of the old student center. A few blocks away, a paved street into the woods leads to remnants of the old gymnasium’s foundation. And along Roberts Avenue are several sets of wide, concrete steps, climbing the bank to nowhere.

Everything else that once existed on this patch of Tallahassee has been covered up by nearly 60 years of development. There are homes, a school, a convenience store. It looks like any other neighborhood.

Except this is where modern Florida State University began. This is where men first lived and studied at FSU. This is where the FSU football and basketball teams began, where the school’s fraternities and world famous circus began. This is where the process began of turning Florida State College for Women into Florida State University.

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