In his office
With wife Bessie
With former student Bob Graham, Florida governor (1979-1987) and U.S. senator (1987-2005).
Samuel Proctor
Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus
Dr. Samuel Proctor passed away on July 10, 2005, after a long illness.
Dr. Samuel Proctor was born in Jacksonville and graduated with a bachelor's degree. from the University of Florida in 1941. When he was an undergraduate, he was a member of the Florida Alligator staff. He received his master's degree in 1942, and his doctorate in 1958, both from the University of Florida.
Dr. Proctor taught at his alma mater for a remarkable fifty years, starting in 1946. His ranks include: Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History; Julian C. Yonge Professor of Florida History Emeritus; Curator of History Emeritus, Florida Museum of Natural History; director emeritus, the Center for Florida Studies; and director emeritus, Oral History Program. Proctor was also the University of Florida Historian. In fact, it was Samuel Proctor who established the university's archives.
For decades, Proctor was one of the world's foremost scholars of Florida history. He edited the scholarly journal, Florida Historical Quarterly, for more than thirty years. Proctor was a pioneer in the field of oral history. The oral history program at the University of Florida, which he established in 1967, is one of the largest in the nation. It is fitting that it is now named after him. He was a member or chair of many historical organizations and associations. He authored or edited countless articles, publications, and books, including the history of the University of Florida.
The Samuel Proctor Endowment was established in his honor for graduate students in history. Those students selected are known as Samuel Proctor Scholars. Proctor was instrumental at the University of Florida in establishing its Center for Jewish Studies.
Even during his retirement, Proctor headed several university-connected committees for the University of Florida Alumni Association and University of Florida Foundation, and was an active member of several state and national committees. He was a heavily sought-after lecturer, consultant, and expert witness. His many honors include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Historical Society.
Other distinguished historians from throughout Florida recently wrote and published a book of original historical essays titled Florida's Heritage of Diversity. The entire work was published in Proctor's honor and dedicated to him. The final essay was one devoted to the life and work of Samuel Proctor.
In 1998, for a special project, a leading Florida newspaper, The Lakeland Ledger, gathered a distinguished panel of judges from throughout the state. They chose Samuel Proctor as one of the "50 Distinguished Floridians of the 20th Century."
"Dean of state history" dies at Gainesville home
Gainesville Sun article, by Bob Arndorfer
July 11, 2005
Samuel Proctor, UF's official historian, left his imprint on the University.
University of Florida historian and retired professor Sam Proctor is shown at Anderson Hall in the heart of the historic part of campus. "Virtually every plaque on every monument at the University of Florida was written by Sam Proctor," said former UF College of Journalism and Communications Dean Ralph Lowenstein.
A long and distinguished chapter in the history of the University of Florida and the state of Florida closed at 3:29 Sunday morning with the death of the school's official historian and the dean of state history, Samuel Proctor.
The distinguished service professor emeritus of history died at his Gainesville home after a long illness. He was 86.
For almost two years Proctor had been battling a mysterious virus he contracted in late summer 2003. He rallied often in the fight, demonstrating how "tenacious he was in his love of life," his longtime friend and former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham said Sunday upon learning of Proctor's death.
Proctor leaves a legacy at UF that extends beyond the historic districts and buildings on campus that he helped identify and preserve.
He was a pioneer of oral history programs on college campuses. In 1967 he established the oral history program at UF, where today nearly 4,000 taped-and-transcribed histories tell the story of Florida in the words of the ordinary and mighty people who lived it.
Before he got sick, Proctor was still conducting interviews, and he maintained an office in Turlington Hall that he visited most days. Graham, the former Florida governor, senator and Proctor student who now lives in Miami Lakes, was among his oral history subjects, and he continued to tape interviews with Proctor almost every time he came to Gainesville.
"Sam Proctor was one of the most influential Floridians of the last half century," Graham said of the man he considers a close personal friend and mentor. "Through his inspirational teaching, thousands of students were introduced to the history of our state and given a better understanding of the personalities and events that made Florida what it is today. He made history an exciting adventure.
"His passing gives me deep personal sadness, which is shared by all those who had the good fortune to know Sam Proctor," Graham said.
During 2003, UF celebrated its 150th anniversary, an observance that was made possible largely by Proctor's efforts that began more than 50 years earlier.
Through his extensive research, Proctor traced UF's origins to 1853, decades before the doors opened at the Gainesville campus in 1906.
"It's a long but interesting story," Proctor once said in an interview with The Sun.
He was born in Jacksonville, one of six sons of a textile salesman and housewife. He came to UF as a freshman in 1937 and earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1941. In two semesters at UF in 1942, he earned a master's degree in history that included writing a 560-page thesis on Florida Gov. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward.
After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II - teaching reading and arithmetic to illiterate recruits at Camp Blanding near Starke - he returned to UF to pursue a law degree. But when a former professor pleaded with him to help out with a post-war teacher shortage, Proctor set aside his original plan.
Discovering a love for the classroom, he went on to teach Florida history and the history of the South for nearly 50 years, retiring from teaching in 1993. Last July, UF presented Proctor with an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service in recognition of his lifelong contributions to the school.
UF history professor and former Provost David Colburn has known Proctor for more than 30 years and said it's hard to think about the future of UF without him.
"Sam is so much a part of this university's history, and he stood for all of the right things that you want a faculty member to stand for," Colburn said. "He cared greatly for his students and stayed in close touch with them. He invested enormously in UF by participating in every major committee on campus, and the historic buildings would not still be standing were it not for his leadership. No one has done more to advance the history of the state and the University of Florida."
Proctor spent 30 years editing the Florida Historical Quarterly, work that established him as the dean of Florida history."Who among us who raise pens or touch keyboards in service to Florida history has not known his guidance, his encouragement, his persuasion, perhaps even his goading?" said Michael Gannon, UF distinguished service professor emeritus of history, who worked with Proctor for years in UF's history department.
Gannon said Proctor belongs in the roster of distinguished Florida historians that goes back to George Rainsford Fairbanks, the state's first serious historian in the English language. Gannon described his friend as a "gentleman of the old school," someone whose professional ability and achievements were matched by personal qualities that "endeared him to us all - his generous spirit, his concern for others, his chivalry, his irrepressible good humor, his kindly wit."
On the UF campus and beyond - he was one of only two academics named among the "50 Most Important Floridians of the 20th Century" by the Lakeland Ledger in a 1998 list - Proctor's imprint was everywhere.
"Virtually every plaque on every monument at the University of Florida was written by Sam Proctor," said former UF College of Journalism and Communications Dean Ralph Lowenstein. "With Blair Reeves of the architecture department, Sam fought and won battles for preservation of the old buildings on campus.
"Part of his legacy is that this was a man completely devoted to the University of Florida," Lowenstein said.
He said Proctor and Bessie, his wife of 56 years, have been "the patriarch and matriarch of Jewish community life in Gainesville." Proctor was a longtime supporter of UF's Center for Jewish Studies, helping raise more than $250,000 for it.
"The center has been his pet," Lowenstein said. "The strength of UF's Center for Jewish Studies is to a large degree Sam's legacy."
Proctor also served as president of the Southern Jewish Historical Society and on committees of the American Jewish Historical Society.
He co-founded UF's Center for Latin American Studies and the Center for the Study of Southeastern Indians. Proctor expanded the oral history program at UF to include interviews with more than 800 American Indians from the Southeastern United States.
UF history professor Julian Pleasants, director of the Proctor Oral History Program, once called Proctor "the institutional memory of the university."
Proctor is survived by his wife and their two sons, Mark J. Proctor of Pensacola and Alan L. Proctor of Atlanta; two brothers, George Proctor and Sol Proctor, both of Jacksonville; and two granddaughters.
Graveside services will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Arlington Memorial Cemetery in Atlanta. A memorial service will be held later in Gainesville on a date to be announced.
