{"id":20982,"date":"2025-05-30T17:15:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T21:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/?post_type=wfsu-news&#038;p=20982"},"modified":"2025-05-30T17:41:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T21:41:20","slug":"tallahassee-is-mourning-john-thrasher-whose-many-achievements-included-the-fsu-presidency","status":"publish","type":"wfsu-news","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/tallahassee-is-mourning-john-thrasher-whose-many-achievements-included-the-fsu-presidency\/","title":{"rendered":"Tallahassee is mourning John Thrasher, whose many achievements included the FSU presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-20982-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2025\/05\/johnthrasher0530d.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2025\/05\/johnthrasher0530d.mp3\">https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2025\/05\/johnthrasher0530d.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>John Thrasher led a remarkable life. President of Florida State University. Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Soldier, lawmaker, businessman. And family man. He died today (Friday) at the age of 81. <\/p>\n<p>Thrasher had a special blend of leadership qualities. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush describes himself as a &#8220;rookie governor&#8221; when he started working with the then-House Speaker.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Were it not for John Thrasher, whatever success that I had\u2026that we had as an administration, wouldn&#8217;t have happened the first few years. He took me under his wings and was an incredible partner\u2026and I got to see true leadership up close.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Although Thrasher was a powerful man, Bush says, he was always gracious.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was a tough guy, but he was always cool under pressure,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Never lost his temper. Was always respectful. You know, we had a big majority as Republicans, but he always let the other side, other voices, be heard. He was respectful to people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thrasher was known for his fierce pride in Florida State long before he became its president. He earned his bachelor&#8217;s degree in business there in 1965. He earned two Bronze Stars in Vietnam. He was honorably discharged as a captain in 1970, then returned to FSU, earning his law degree with honors in 1972.<\/p>\n<p>Thrasher was the 90th speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, and Bush says Thrasher&#8217;s experience in the military and the legislature prepared him well for the presidency of FSU.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You have to have a degree of empathy for the other side. Which we&#8217;ve lost a little bit in our politics, but John exemplified that,&#8221; Bush said. &#8220;I think those skills directly transferred over to a public leadership job like being president of FSU.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thrasher was FSU&#8217;s president from 2014 to 2021, during which time FSU rose to No. 18 among public universities in the U.S. News &amp; World Report rankings. Here he is in 2022, the year after he retired:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were able to really motivate folks towards student success. We were able to tell our story and find students who wanted to come here,&#8221; Thrasher said. &#8220;I mean, last year, I was here, we had 75,000 applications.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His successful presidency included a fundraising campaign that netted $1.16 billion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m really proud of Florida State, proud of what we&#8217;ve accomplished. We have a great faculty,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They&#8217;re getting better and better every year, and the new president, I think, is on a track to even accelerate all of that and make it even better than it is.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Skip Foster of Hammerhead Communications was publisher of the Tallahassee Democrat during Thrasher&#8217;s leadership of FSU. He recalls Thrasher once asking him not to publish something.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I had to say, &#8216;You know, John, I would love to be able to say yes to your request, but I just can&#8217;t do it.&#8217; And he understood,&#8221; Foster said. &#8220;And the next time I saw him, it was like nothing had ever happened. He knew that even though we had semi-adversarial roles, we could still treat each other with respect, and that&#8217;s how he led his whole life. That was just a microcosm of the way he led.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thrasher was just as successful as a businessman. He co-founded The Southern Group lobbying firm and was a partner there. He served as general counsel of the Florida Medical Association for decades.<\/p>\n<p>But for him, he said, it&#8217;s less about the accomplishments than the impacts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Numbers are just numbers,&#8221; said Thrasher. &#8220;It&#8217;s what happens to our kids when they leave. And they&#8217;re doing great things all over the country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He is survived by Jean, to whom he was married for 60 years.<\/p>\n<p>According to Florida State University, a private burial has been planned in Orange Park, Florida, and a celebration of life will be held August 19 at Florida State University&#8217;s Ruby Diamond Concert Hall. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2025 WFSU<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[],"tags":[1136,1135],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tallahassee is mourning John Thrasher, whose many achievements included the FSU presidency - WFSU Local Routes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/tallahassee-is-mourning-john-thrasher-whose-many-achievements-included-the-fsu-presidency\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tallahassee is mourning John Thrasher, whose many achievements included the FSU presidency - 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