The hallmark of John Thrasher’s 30-plus years in Tallahassee is that a town built on hard-knuckle politics holds much warmth and admiration for a former leader of the state’s Republican Party who went on to become a beloved president of Florida State University.
In a town where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2–1, contemporaries of the Republican former House Speaker and state senator extolled Thrasher’s leadership skills and commitment to do what was right. He died May 30 after a battle with cancer; he was 81.
“John had a very simple agenda, to do what was right and fair,” said former state Sen. Bill Montford, a Democrat from Tallahassee.
The two had similar north Florida upbringings and both were the first in their families to attend college. They sat next to each other on the Senate floor for four years, and both would continue careers in education after politics.
“It was clear that he and I had the same respect for public education and the importance it was to a better life. And John Thrasher knew there was no better avenue to helping our fellow man than education,” said Montford, CEO of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents.
From May 30: John Thrasher dies; was FSU president, House speaker, Florida GOP titan
The word ‘mentor’ is frequently mentioned when current and former lawmakers are asked about Thrasher. Friends, colleagues, former employees and FSU alumni lauded him as a person of integrity, a visionary statesman in the many positions he held in Tallahassee after first being elected to the Florida House in 1992.
Rep. Allison Tant, D-Tallahassee, had known Thrasher for 40 years, back to when he served on the Clay County School Board and she was a legislative aide to former Sen. Mattox S. Hair, D-Jacksonville.
“He was extraordinary in every role he took on. He took FSU to dizzying heights with research, fundraising, and the extraordinary connections he made with students and people throughout Tallahassee,” Tant said. She called Thrasher a “leader’s leader.”
Mary Coburn got a close look at Thrasher’s leadership skills when he was first appointed FSU president. She was the vice president for student affairs when a campus uproar erupted to try to derail Thrasher’s appointment.
The secret to how Thrasher won over the FSU community, Coburn said, was, “he was a fantastic listener.” At the time of the appointment, Thrasher was chair of the powerful Senate Rules committee, the last stop for bills before the chamber floor.
Thrasher supporters recruited him to help with the university’s $1 billion “Raise the Torch” fundraising campaign – he had raised more than $50 million in one year as RPOF chair. But students and faculty objected to the appointment of a president without an academic background.
Coburn arranged a meeting between the incoming president and his on-campus detractors to quell what was becoming a Seminole uprising in hopes of providing “closure” for the protesters.
Earlier that year, Thrasher had proposed splitting the FAMU/FSU School of Engineering into separate facilities. His opponents even used the aborted proposal to question whether he was prejudiced and his appointment a Trojan horse for an attempt to “corporatize” education.
“There was a lot going against him as someone who had held so many political offices. They hurled some really vicious stuff at him,” Bob Holladay, a Tallahassee State College history professor, said about the meeting. For more than an hour, Thrasher sat, listened, and took notes on why people thought he was not qualified.
“He didn’t try to argue … He didn’t say why he disagreed with them, that he wasn’t the person they said he was. He just was a sounding board for them, and I think that really sort of put an end” to the opposition, Coburn said.
Coburn served five FSU presidents as an associate dean or VP, including two others who were former lawmakers: Sandy D’Alemberte and T.K. Wetherell.
She said Thrasher had a unique willingness to engage with others in sincere discussion: “I never had a president who was so willing to listen and sort of change their point of view based on hearing other people’s point of view. Very willing. I witnessed him over and over again modifying his point of view based on feedback.”
The ability to really hear what others were saying served Thrasher well in overcoming a series of challenges he faced in the early years of his administration.
In addition to the initial opposition, there was a shooting at Strozier Library, a fraternity-related hazing death, diversity and inclusion issues tied to the city and university’s racial history, and the goal of FSU achieving status as a preeminent research institution.
Caught in a web of circumstances, Montford said Thrasher responded like a boat captain in troubled waters, fixed on a lighthouse beacon to safely reach the shore.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney visited Tallahassee during his unsuccessful 2012 campaign and met with local business owners at a luncheon. Here, he speaks with state Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, while Tallahassee Democrat reporter Bill Cotterell takes a picture.
“John stepped up, took care of the students and faculty, and, as always, he followed his guiding light – to do what was right and fair. If more of us would do that, this country, this state, would be better off,” Montford said.
Thrasher broke with an effort by members of the political party he once headed by opposing a push to allow guns on campuses. He condemned conduct by members of FSU’s lauded football team and championed better ways to support victims of sexual violence.
Thrasher assembled a team of academics that elevated FSU’s academic reputation to a Top 20 Public University ranking. And he secured an unprecedented gift of $100 million from the family of businessman Jim Moran to create a college devoted to entrepreneurialism.
Coburn said after people got to know Thrasher, she could not go anywhere with him without students, parents, alumni, and others stopping to ask to take a photo with the FSU leader.
“Those are my really pleasant memories about John … It was wonderful bringing him to student events because of (how they) responded to him. He loved students, was really compassionate and cared about them and how they were doing … He just had a warmth about him that made people want to be with him,” Coburn said.
While Thrasher is best known locally as a president of Florida State University, the campus is but a mile from the state Capitol where he built a legacy as a friend and confidant, a power broker who nonetheless was always willing to help.
Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, a former Republican Senate President, called Thrasher the “Lion of the Senate” and a mentor.
Senate President Ben Albritton released a lengthy statement recounting Thrasher’s love and devotion to his spouse Jean and their children and grandchildren. He said Thrasher’s record of public service was a statement of “integrity, perseverance and strength.”
And Albritton recounted how Thrasher always exhibited timeless principles of honor and acted as a gentleman while his life took him through the battlefields of Vietnam, the local politics of Clay County, committee rooms in the Florida House and Senate, and the campus of Florida State.
“His life was rooted in devotion to public service, patriotism, a love of the law, and passion for education,” Albritton wrote in a memo to the Senate.
Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, said he was struck by Thrasher’s patriotism and commitment to public service when Thrasher invited Jones to stop by FSU after Jones was elected to the Senate in 2020. He, as Thrasher had done a decade before, was moving from the Florida House to the Senate.
“He shared advice I’ll never forget,” Jones said. ” ’The Senate is where the grownups sit and negotiate – so be one of the grownups in the room and go do good’ … He was a true statesman and a good man,” Jones said.
In an exit interview with the Tallahassee Democrat after retiring from FSU, Thrasher said he was raised in what he called “pretty poor” circumstances. He was the first person in his family to graduate from high school and the first to go to college.
“Education comes to me as an extraordinarily important thing,” he said in a discussion of his legacy. “When a student comes to Florida State University, my job is to make sure they get the best chance they can to achieve their hopes and dreams and go out and make a difference in the world.”
Funeral arrangements
A private burial is planned in Orange Park, with a celebration of life to be held at Florida State University’s Ruby Diamond Concert Hall in Tallahassee on Aug. 19. Details will be forthcoming.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: ‘A good man’: John Thrasher remembered as FSU leader, statesman