Citation
FOR

Grace H. Dansby
HONORARY DOCTOR of HUMANE LETTERS
Grace H. Dansby: Engaged civic leader, generous community
philanthropist and loyal alumna of Florida State University.
A native of Dunnellon, Florida, you were one of the first students to
attend the new Florida State University. In the decades that followed,
you grew to local prominence in your adopted hometown of
Tallahassee by exercising astute entrepreneurial acumen and by
modeling servant-leadership.
You were one of the founders of Southern Bank and served that
institution and its successor institutions as a director. In addition, you
were one of the founders of Super-Lube and served as a member of its
board.
Over the years, you sat on the boards of numerous community
organizations and charities. These included the Downtown
Improvement Authority, Goodwood Museum and Gardens and the
Lighthouse Children’s Home. In so doing, you freely shared your
wisdom and judgment, leaving an indelibly positive mark on
Tallahassee.
Your service to a local hospital is especially notable. You served a
decade as chair of the Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Foundation’s
Board of Trustees and a decade as vice chair of the hospital’s Board of
Directors. In addition, you were the originator and general chair of the
hospital’s first annual Golden Gala and have continued serving on the
event’s Executive Committee for the past 33 years.
You took your civic-mindedness a step further, using your considerable
financial means to leave Tallahassee better than you found it with your
far-reaching philanthropy. Never seeking the spotlight, you gave out of
a desire to move institutions forward and demonstrate leadership. You
provided for the beautiful stained-glass window in the chapel of the
Margaret Z. Dozier House at Big Bend Hospice and the delightful
manatee sculpture and fountain in the Laurie L. Dozier Jr., M.D., Atrium
at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.

 You also provided 750 acres and Piney Z Lake for public use to the City
of Tallahassee. In recognition of your overwhelming generosity, thenMayor Scott Maddox presented you with a Key to the City on February
15, 1996, which was proclaimed “Grace Dansby Day” by the Leon
County Board of County Commissioners. That same year, Leadership
Tallahassee honored you with its Lifetime Leadership Award.
In recognition of your service and significant gifts that helped fund the
Tallahassee Memorial Trauma Center and other TMH patient-care units,
Tallahassee Memorial honored you earlier this year with its Legend In
Service Award.
Your interest and concern extended to Florida State, where you
demonstrated yourself to be a champion of its goals and growth and
were an enduring presence at its events.
You joined the Seminole Boosters as one of the original Golden Chiefs
and continued to actively and generously support Florida State
Athletics through the years.
You befriended the university’s presidents, supporting them with your
counsel and your distinguished standing in the community. To
underscore your friendship with President Bernard F. Sliger, you and
your husband, Sherrill Dansby, made a significant gift to the Sliger
Endowment in Economics in 1984.
You participated in the leadership committee that raised seed money
to launch the University Center initiative, and you played a major role
in the funding and placement of the landmark Unconquered Statue.
You served on the boards of the FSU Foundation and WFSU, made
significant contributions to the university’s capital campaigns and
showed a deep commitment to the College of Medicine by establishing
the Sherrill and Grace Dansby Scholarship Endowment for Medical
Education in 2013.
Your grace, strength of character and untiring resolve have made you
the quintessential example of what a good and decent citizen ought to
be: generous with your time, talents and treasure for the benefit of
others.
It is therefore fitting and appropriate to bestow upon you the high
recognition designated by an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
degree from Florida State University.