Kenneth H. "Buddy" MacKay
Governor

"A Conversation with "Buddy" MacKay"

A native of Marion County, Florida, Buddy MacKay holds B.S. and J.D. degrees from the University of Florida. A farmer and citrus grower, MacKay's credits include a distinguished career in public service. After serving in the Florida legislature and the United States Congress, MacKay ran with U. S. Senator Lawton Chiles for the state's top post. He and Chiles were elected in 1990. After serving nearly eight years as lieutenant governor, MacKay became Florida's 42nd governor upon the death of Governor Lawton Chiles, only three weeks before the end of his term.

The Chiles/MacKay administration grappled with many important challenges including the state including education funding, children's issues, environmental degradation and restoration issues, over development, population issues and, of course, the $11.3 billion tobacco litigation. MacKay's common-sense leadership earned him the reputation of the most influential lieutenant governor in Florida's history.

After leaving the governor's office, MacKay was selected by President Bill Clinton to serve as Special Presidential Envoy to the Americas.

Buddy MacKay remains active in farming, public affairs and teaching. He and his wife, Anne, live in Oklawaha and enjoy hiking, gardening and spending time with their family.

Tom Gallagher
Florida's Chief Financial Officer
   
   
"Reflections of the Republican Party
in Florida Over the Past 30 Years"
   

**Robert and Susan McKnight Political Affairs Lecture

A native of Wilmington, Delaware, and graduate of the University of Miami, Tom Gallagher was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1974. At that time, he served as one of Dade County's few Republican house members. In 1986, he made an unsuccessful bid for governor and then, after two years in the mortgage business, ran successfully to become Florida's 21st insurance commissioner and treasurer. Within his duties as insurance commissioner, Gallagher oversaw rebuilding after Florida's most devastating and costly natural disaster Hurricane Andrew. During the 1990s, Gallagher was re-elected to the Florida cabinet, serving as education commissioner (1998-2000), and again as insurance commissioner and treasurer in 2000. In 2003, he was sworn in as Florida's first Chief Financial Officer. In this newly created cabinet post, his responsibilities include overseeing the state's fiscal health, auditing state programs, and monitoring insurance company operations in the state.

Gallagher is married to Laura Wilson, a sixth generation Floridian, and they have one son.

Dr. James M. Denham
Professor of History, Florida Southern College

Dr. Keith L. Huneycutt
Professor of English, Florida Southern College

"Women in Antebellum Florida"

Book Talk and signing
Echoes from a Distant Frontier: The Brown Sisters' Correspondence in Antebellum Florida (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2004)

Dr. James M. "Mike" Denham is the author of four books including A Rogue's Paradise: Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Florida, 1821-1861; Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives: The Reminiscences of George Gillett Keen and Sarah Pamela Williams and Florida Sheriffs: A History, 1821 - 1945. His articles and reviews have appeared in the American Historical Review, Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Georgia Historical Quarterly and Florida Historical Quarterly. He has attended fellowships at the University of South Carolina, Harvard University, University of Wisconsin, West Point Military Academy and Columbia University. Dr. Denham teaches history at Florida Southern College and is the Director of the Center for Florida History. He lives in Lakeland with his wife Patty and two children, Maggie and Jim.

Dr. Keith L. Huneycutt is Professor of English and Chair of the Florida Southern College English Department. A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Huneycutt earned a Ph. D. in English from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. He has taught a variety of courses ranging from Freshman Composition to Shakespeare. A specialist in Victorian literature, Huneycutt's reviews and articles have appeared in Military History of the West and the Florida Historical Quarterly. He is currently working on an edition of the creative writings of Corinna and Ellen Brown. Huneycutt resides in Lakeland with his wife Marshi and his daughter.

Dr. Maurice O'Sullivan
Kenneth Curry Professor of English
Rollins College

"Florida Literature: A Great Disorder is in Order"

Dr. Maurice O'Sullivan holds a B. A. degree from Fairfield University and earned his M. A. and Ph. D. from Case Western Reserve University. He taught at Ohio State University before joining the Rollins faculty in 1975. He is the author or editor of many books including The Florida Reader, edited with Jack Lane, for which they received the Florida Historical Society's Charlton Tebeau Award in 1992. His other books include Florida Poetry, Crime Fiction and Film in the Sunshine State: Florida Noir and Shakespeare's Other Lives. O'Sullivan is co-editor of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature, co-director of the Florida Center for Shakespeare Studies and co-director of the Drey Summer Shakespeare Institute.

His articles have appeared in journals on four continents including the Shakespeare Quarterly, Black American Literature Forum, Philological Quarterly, International Review of History and Political Science (India), Dutch Quarterly Review and Sydney Studies in English (Australia. He lectures widely on topics ranging from Shakespeare, British Art and Irish Culture to Florida Studies, mystery novels and film.
O'Sullivan lives in Orlando with his wife, Susan, and enjoys occasional visits to his son
Quinn's pub in Nashville.

Dr. Phyllis Vine
Author

"Bartow, Florida's Ossian Sweet Story"

**Stahl Lecture in Criminal Justice

Book Talk and Signing
"One Man's Castle:" Clarence Darrow in Defense of the American Dream (New York: Amisted, 2004)

A native of Los Angeles, California, Dr. Phyllis Vine holds degrees in history from the University of California, Los Angeles, and earned her Ph. D. at the University of Michigan. An American historian, Dr. Vine has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Michigan, Union College and Barnard College. During her tenure at Sarah Lawrence College, she received recognition for excellence in teaching for three of her courses. Also a graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, Dr. Vine has written for The Nation, Progressive, Extra!, and City Limits magazines. Her first book, Families in Pain, broke new ground in addressing the problems facing families of the mentally ill.

While researching her family history, she was drawn to the story of Ossian Sweet and wanted to know more. "I found myself drawn to the tragic qualities of this exceptional human being who lost so much," Vine says. Dr. Vine lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York with her husband and two children.

Dr. Canter Brown
Professor of History
Florida A&M University

"The Heart of Florida: Polk County, 1940-2000"

Book Talk and Signing

A native of Fort Meade, Canter Brown earned his J.D. and Ph.D. degrees from The Florida State University. He is the author of many works on Florida History, including Florida's Peace River Frontier (the winner of the Florida Historical Society's Rembert Patrick Book Award in 1992); Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867-1924; Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives: the Florida Reminiscences of George Gillett Keen and Sarah Pamela Williams; Tampa Before the Civil War; Tampa in Civil War and Reconstruction; In the Midst of All That Makes Life Worth Living: Polk County Florida to 1940. In 1999 his work Ossian Bingley Hart, Florida's Loyalist Reconstruction Governor earned the certificate of commendation from the American Association for State and Local History. His articles and reviews have appeared in the Journal of Southern History, Louisiana History, Florida Historical Quarterly, American Jewish Archives, and Forum Magazine. Fort Meade High School honored Brown with induction into its Hall of Distinguished Graduates in 1997 and the Polk County Public School system named him to its Hall of Fame in 1999. Brown resides in Tallahassee with his wife and collaborator Barbara Gray Brown.

SPONSORED BY LAKELAND SOUTH ROTARY