2016 Inductee John Thrasher - YouTube

My father was in the army and he was stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina,

and I was born there. And moved back after he got out of the army to Indiana, lived there

until I was about four. Then we moved to Jacksonville, Florida when I was about

four, and that's where I grew up. I mean, I'll, I'll be honest with you, it was pretty

poor folks around there and uh, my father was a laborer. We didn't have a lot of money.

When I got a little bit older, I had a couple of my mother's sisters who um, helped me actually

go to college. So, I was very pleased about that. Started at Florida State University

in 1961 and I had a couple of my older friends drive me over. I had one big trunk and deposited

me in a house that we had rented with about six other guys. I got into a fraternity, Sigma

Phi Epsilon, I might add, for all the Sig Ep's out there. And I lived there until Jean

and I got married in my senior year.

I never will forget it, the last final that I had

was in the College of Business, I was in the College of Business then, was statistics.

I had that final on a Friday, drove home, had a bachelor party on Friday night. We actually

got married on the following Sunday and then came back to FSU. I could not tell you the

first thing about statistics today.

I, I mean, I really couldn't. She was on my mind.

When I got out, you know, I got a job with an insurance company. And we thought we were going to set

up a house, and home, and children and all that, and lo and behold a few months later,

I got a draft notice. It was during the Vietnam era. So, I mean, yeah, it was a shock to us,

when we got a draft notice. But, we answered the call and that was what, I think, Americans

do and that's what Americans ought to do.

We get in the army. She was pregnant. We moved

to San Antonio, Texas for several months for training there and I guess by the time she

was almost nine months pregnant, we went to Germany and that was my first duty station

in Heidelberg, Germany. And then, when we came home, after three years in Germany, she

was pregnant again. So, I get back from Vietnam, literally in Seattle, Washington, get out

of the army, fly to Atlanta, Georgia, meet Jean, she has already gone to Tallahassee,

rented a house, set up our house there, and I meet my son for the very first time. And,

literally four days after getting out of the army, I start law school. Because of our economic

situation, I went straight through, nine quarters in a row. Got out, and got a first job, right

out of law school, which was really exciting. I had worked in the Florida Legislature as

an intern and met a gentleman by the name of Fred Carl who was a state senator but also

a lawyer and had a law firm, he was a partner of a law firm in Daytona Beach. And I worked

for Fred Carl for a number of years and then I became General Counsel for the Florida Medical

Association. That was a full-time job. I had that job for twenty years, from 1976-1996.

And Jean was real active in the schools and she started looking at some of the things

that were going on in the school system and got real, kind of concerned about it. She

started going to school board meetings. And so, she drug me down there to a school board

meeting, and said, afterwards, "See what I'm saying? And by the way, some of our friends

have gotten together and you're going to run for the School Board." And I said, "what? Who

am I running against?" And she said, well, a guy that's been in office for 26 years.

So, bottom line is, we won. There was kind of a changing in politics in that area in the

county and I beat the guy, ran, of course as a republican. I don't say that out loud

in too many places, but I think most people know that I'm a republican. 1990, right after

four years of being in there, I ran for the legislature in the House of Representatives.

And I got beat, believe it or not. Got beat. Two years later, I ran again, for the same

office and won and I spent an incredible eight years in the House of Representatives, last

two being Speaker of the House. I got elected to Senate in 2009. I had a lot of elections

in five years because of the way term limits were done and the way redistricting was done,

but we prevailed in all of those elections.

Here's the thing about Florida State's College

of Business, I think it's at an equal with just about any school in America. If you want

to stay in Florida, and you want to make a difference in this state, go to Florida State

University. It's the best opportunity you'll have. It's the best economic opportunity you'll

have because tuitions are low here in the state of Florida and the opportunity to get

a great education is very high. So, those two things together, I think are a no brainer.

I love this job. This is the greatest job I've ever had in my life. Jean and I both

do. It's just an amazing experience every single day to see the hard work that so many

people are putting in to this great university and to be able to be a part of that is just

an absolute thrill of a lifetime for me. I never will forget it. And like I have told

a lot of people, this is the last job I will ever have and it's, I guarantee you, the best

job I could ever have.