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Florida Southern awards Distinguished Service Award posthumously to alumnus/professor C. Jeffery Wiley honored for contributions to FSC

LAKELAND, Fla. (March 4, 2003) - Florida Southern College honors posthumously alumnus and FSC professor C. Jeffery Wiley, a 1956 graduate, at its Founders Day convocation March 21 at 10:10 a.m. in Branscomb Auditorium. Wiley's widow, Judy, will accept the Distinguished Service to Florida Southern College award, given each year for significant efforts on behalf of the college. 

Wiley, who passed away in July, was a business administration professor. He earned his MBA at Indiana University and served for 20 years in the Army government controller field. In 1976, he returned to the campus as a faculty member where he taught for 26 years, winning the Outstanding Teacher Award in 1988. Wiley was instrumental in starting chapters of Sigma Beta Delta and the Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs and served for several years as adviser of Delta Sigma Pi. He also initiated the college/business student work intern program. 

Wiley's love for teaching and concern for students was unmistakable. "Jeff touched many lives, including my own," said Dr. Carl Brown, chair of the business and economics department. "Together we shared good times and tragedies, but his spirit and genuine concern for others never wavered. He was a friend, mentor, and often an inspiration. We shall all miss his counsel, and the way his smile would light the room." 

About Florida Southern College
Florida Southern is a four-year, private, co-educational liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The college offers more than 40 undergraduate majors and a master of business administration degree accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Located in Lakeland, Fla., the college is home to the largest, single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture in the world. 

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