Florida State University’s College of Business has received $10 million to create the Dr. Persis E. Rockwood School of Marketing in honor of the late trailblazing FSU professor emerita.
From left: Dr. Charles Rockwood, Dr. Michael Hartline, Dr. Persis Rockwood
The gift is from Rockwood – she died in May 2021 at age 97 – and her surviving husband, FSU Professor Emeritus Dr. Charles Rockwood.
This money also will establish the Dr. Persis E. and Dr. Charles E. Rockwood Eminent Scholar Chair in Marketing.
“This is a historic moment in the life of the university, the college and more specifically the Department of Marketing,” said Dr. Michael Hartline, dean of the College of Business. “The transformational nature of this gift cannot be overstated, as it will have a life-changing impact on our faculty and students, as well as our college.”
Persis was the first woman, in 1960, to earn a Ph.D. in marketing from Stanford University; the first woman at FSU, in 1973, to attain the status of full professor of marketing; and the first woman elected as president of the Southern Marketing Association – now the Society for Marketing Advances – of which she was a founding member.
In 2018, she was one of the first seven faculty – and the first woman – inducted into the FSU College of Business’ Charles A. Rovetta Faculty Hall of Fame.
