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- Dr. Dick Puglisi
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. Dick Puglisi
Today is December 1, 2005. My name is Lou Bowers. Today, I will be interviewing Dr. Dick Puglisi to give his oral history as a faculty member of the College of Education. Welcome, Dick. Thank you for sharing with us your time and experiences here at USF.
DP: Well, it’s my pleasure, and I’m very pleased to do it.
LB: Now, you were born and raised in Tampa, so your introduction to USF was first, I understand, as an undergraduate student. Tell us a little how that came about and what were those experiences like in the first days of the University.
DP: Well, it was a glorious experience and I’ve always felt extremely fortunate. It’s just timing. I was born in Tampa, actually in Ybor City. I graduated from Jefferson High School in 1960. My friends and I realized that the time had come to think about college. The reality was that we did not have the financial resources to even think about going to the University of Tampa, the University of Florida or anywhere else. It was just again timing and good fortune that I graduated from high school in the summer of 1960 and USF opened its doors in the fall of the same year. We walked right in. I think I joined about 1,800 students in that first class, and again I didn’t realize at the time how actually fortunate I was, because not only did we have the beginning of a wonderful university, but we had access to outstanding faculty members. It was quite an experience for a 17-year-old kid from Ybor City to all of a sudden walk into a classroom with Ph.D. professors. I’ll always be grateful for that opportunity.
LB: Now there probably were a few buildings, fewer faculty members, and of course fewer students.
DP: There were. My recollection was there were three buildings. I’ll always remember gathering with a group of my classmates at what was called the Administration building. It was later named the John and Grace Allen Building. We were in the patio area, and we were all a little nervous of course, a little intimidated, not realizing what was going to happen. There was the Chemistry building. It was relatively small and not close to what it is today. We had the University Center which is now, of course, the Marshall Center, and right on top of the University Center, I think on the top floor, was the student health facilities as well as what they called the dorms of the time. That was it.
LB: Were there many social events on campus? You probably were commuting to the campus.
DP: I think we were all commuters with the exception of a handful of students. There was always a struggle to have social events and try to bring the students together. But quite frankly, as soon as our classes were over we headed to either jobs or back home. If we had to go and do some studying we would go and study at the UC. But mostly it was very much commuter-oriented at that time.
LB: Could you have envisioned what the University would have become today in any way?