Page 237 - lake-city-florida-a-sesquicentennial-tribute-(h-morris-williams-kevin-mccarthy)-2009

Lake City, Florida: A Sesquicentennial Tribute (2009) H. Morris Williams, Dr. Kevin M. McCarthy

Chapter Sixteen: 1960 - 1969

Another important legislator who helped Lake City land the
junior college was Senator W.E. Bishop (pictured below). When
legislators decided to put a two-year college in either Madison (Madi-
son County) or Live Oak (Suwannee County), Senator Bishop, a
former CHS agriculture teacher, realized that Lake City would not get
such a college if nearby Live
Oak acquired one. So he
joined forces with Senator
Turner Davis of Madison,
and together they were able
to place North Florida Jun-
ior College in Madison. That
then opened the door for
Senator Melton and Repre-
sentative Bedenbaugh to in-
troduce their bills to put a
college in Lake City.
The two-year colleges
were part of a plan, pushed
by Governor Leroy Collins
in the 1950s, of putting a
W.E. Bishop college within commuting
distance of every Floridian. That would eventually result, by 2009, of
28 two-year colleges, spread out on 60 campuses, employing over
40,000 teachers and staff, and educating over 800,000 students each
year.

The care to detail that admin-
istrators on the beautifully
landscaped campus of the
local community college have
extends even to the trash cans
around campus, cans that
resemble tree trunks and are
reminders of the forestry
connections of the school.
(See photo to the right.)
233

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