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FSC to name building for Becker

Fort Meade Leader – March 26, 2011

Citrus Hall of Famer and owner of Peace River Citrus Products Bill Becker has given $5 million to Florida Southern College for a state-of-the-art building for a new School of Business and Economics, school President Anne Kerr said.

She made the announcement during FSC’s annual Founders Day Convocation March 18.

Internationally renowned New York architect and Frank Lloyd Wright scholar Robert A.M. Stern will design the building, which will cost $15-$25 million.

Kerr noted that business is the largest major at Florida Southern College, and that the new facility is needed to ensure FSC business students receive the “highest caliber” education possible.

“It will provide our students access to the latest in technology and will move our plans forward as the School of Business and Economics becomes one of the best in the country,” she said.

Among other amenities, the new building will allow for a mock trading floor and video conferencing center. Kerr noted a graduate school facility will eventually be added to complement this building project. Both buildings are slated for construction along the shore of Lake Hollingsworth.

The new R. William and Mary Ann Becker School of Business and Economics building is in its earliest phase of planning.

Becker served as the chairman of the Florida Citrus Commission for five terms. He majored in business and graduated from FSC in 1965.

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