Fourth dean: Stith helped college achieve ‘global distinction’

If previous leaders made bold statements about the glowing future of the Florida State University College of Business, then Melvin Stith added exclamation points. And he never stopped smiling. 

Stith succeeded E. Ray Solomon as dean in 1991 and embarked on 13 years of collaboration and transformation. He remains beloved for the warmth he carried into every room, respected for his ability to connect on a meaningful level and celebrated for laying the groundwork for the largest gift in the university’s history. 

Stith also made his mark in hiring top-notch faculty members, some of whom continue to flourish in the college, and in broadening the college’s pool of doctoral students – for which, on a national level, he has maintained long-time leadership, advocacy and passion. 

All the while, he focused on excellence in undergraduate programs and student outcomes and accelerated the college’s decades-long march to preeminence. 

Stith left FSU in 2004 to become business dean at Syracuse University, from where he retired in 2013. Later, a year-and-a-half stint as interim president of Norfolk State University – his alma mater – marked the end of an extraordinary academic career, which followed service as an officer in the Vietnam War. 

The College of Business salutes Stith, a 2018 inductee into the college’s Charles A. Rovetta Faculty Hall of Fame, as it celebrates its 75th anniversary and prepares to move into Legacy Hall, a stunning world-class new home scheduled to open for spring 2026 classes. 

“Seventy-five years of winning, each and every day,” Stith said during an interview about the anniversary observances. “When we would ask one of our alums or a corporation to partner with us, to come and recruit our students, they would come, and they would say, ‘Man, these are great students. How do we get more of them?’ That's when we knew we were winning.” 

Michael Hartline, the current dean of the college, hailed Stith for “his amazing track record of support for our students, faculty and staff members, including when it came to establishing consequential relationships and securing game-changing and life-changing gifts to the college and university.” 

“For those reasons and more, Dean Stith remains a College of Business and FSU legend who played a significant role in helping us achieve global distinction.” 

Never a bad day 

Former colleagues and students remember Stith, always dressed to a tee with polished leather shoes, for his positive perspective and the cheerful and respectful culture he maintained in the college.  

“I loved my job and he loved his,” said Betty Smith, who spent 29 years in the college and worked as executive assistant for three deans, including Stith, before she retired in 2010. “We recognized each other’s strengths, and we trusted each other. Work ethic, honesty, integrity, compromise, loyalty, compassion, sensitivity and high moral values were important to both of us.” 

She added: “We were fortunate to have so many people working toward the same goals and to have Melvin Stith as our dean for 13 years.” 

Others recall a professional yet warm demeanor that always kept them at ease. 

Business alumnus Chris Iansiti (BS Finance ’92 and MS Instructional Systems ’94) remembers 1990. He was a young student on the third floor of the Rovetta Business Building when the dean walked up to him with “the biggest smile.” 

“He extended his hand and gave me a really nice handshake, the kind that business folks are taught,” Iansiti said. “He wanted to know who I was and what I was studying. He took a genuine interest in me as a student.” 

Iansiti continued to observe Stith and saw the dean’s ability to relate to people and turn a one-on-one encounter into a two-way triumph. Iansiti became a leader and expert in corporate learning, human performance and talent management. A 2023 inductee into the college’s Alumni Hall of Fame, he is a former chair of the college’s Board of Governors and now serves as chair of the FSU Foundation Board of Trustees. 

“Dean Stith taught me a lot on how to be successful in strategy and people relations,” Iansiti said. “And I thank Dean Stith for being the leader and role model who made a difference in my life.” 

Stith said it always came down to caring: A college that cares about its students produces graduates who care about their college. He pointed to the scores of FSU business alumni who “have shared their resources – whether their time, their talents, their wealth or their expertise” – with the university. 

“To me, that’s caring,” he said. “Our faculty do a great job, and that’s what our alumni took away and continue to take away.” 

A remarkable background 

Born on a family farm in a tiny town in southeastern Virginia, Stith became the first of 10 children to earn a college degree; all earned bachelor’s degrees and many advanced degrees. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Norfolk State University, then served three years as an Army intelligence officer during the Vietnam War. He recalls being in the jungle near the Cambodian border when he received a teletype from Syracuse University, which offered him a scholarship to graduate school. Stith got reassigned to Fort Eustis in Newport News, Virginia, where he completed his military service. He then made his way to Syracuse University, where he earned an MBA and a Ph.D. in marketing. 

Stith spent five years as a faculty member, including as associate dean, at the University of South Florida and three years as a visiting professor at Florida A&M University. In 1985, he joined the FSU College of Business as an associate professor and chair of the Department of Marketing, now the Rockwood School of Marketing. Six years later, he became dean and helped to transform the college. 

He promptly forged a friendship with billionaire car dealer and philanthropist Jim Moran (1918-2007) and Moran’s wife, Jan, neither of whom attended FSU. The friendship spawned numerous gifts to the college and university, including a $100 million investment from Jan Moran and The Jim Moran Foundation to create the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship (which is now the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship), still the only stand-alone public college of entrepreneurship in the U.S. The record investment came in 2015, 11 years after Stith left FSU and during Hartline’s stint as interim dean. 

Stith highlights his relationship with the Morans and the ensuing investments as among his biggest accomplishments as dean, yet he gives all the credit to the benefactors: He never had to ask them for gifts. 

“They knew the appropriate times to make gifts that would make the university a better place,” he said. “I would talk about the needs of the college and the needs of the university,” and the Morans would respond.  

‘What was best for Florida State’ 

Stith vividly recalls the Morans’ first philanthropic investment, in 1995. He was in South Florida as a board member for Jim Moran’s Youth Automotive Training Center, a nonprofit organization that Jim Moran founded to help disadvantaged teens and young adults learn academic, automotive and life skills. Jan Moran approached him, and Stith mentioned that he would be returning home that day because he’d be spending the next day celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary with his wife, Patricia. 

Jan Moran said if he stayed another day, she’d send him back to FSU with a $1 million gift – an especially significant investment at the time -- from her, her husband and JM Family Enterprises to establish the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship. 

“I called my wife and said, ‘Love has to wait,’” Stith said with a laugh. “That was the first of many major gifts and the beginning of a relationship that has lasted to this day.” 

Stith continues to support FSU, including when he served as a spring 2025 commencement speaker for several colleges, and FSU continues to honor him. In 2019, Stith received FSU’s Bernard F. Sliger Award, the alumni association’s highest honor. In 2020, the College of Business Board of Governors created the Melvin T. Stith Sr. Professor of Business Administration, an endowed professorship currently held by Wayne Hochwarter, a management professor. 

Also, earlier this month, the Tallahassee-Leon County Office of Economic Vitality honored Stith as the 2025 Reggie L. Rolle Economic Development Champion for his “remarkable career as a distinguished academic leader, business executive, and community advocate.” 

“Every day when I walked into this building … I wanted what was best for Florida State,” Stith said, referring to the Rovetta Business Building. “I wanted to make the College of Business and the entire campus a better place for men and women and to have the resources to do that.” 

He added, with a smile, of course: “I have to say I think we did a pretty good job with that.”