Hartline’s legacy: Serving others, changing lives

You know Mike Hartline. At least you think you do.

You might not know that he played the trombone in high school and college, conducted his final high school band concert, sold shoes at Kmart, had a very brief career at Waldenbooks and met his wife on the 30-yard line during marching band practice at Alabama’s Jacksonville State University. You also might not know that today he adores cruises, classical music and tech gadgetry. 

More likely – or most certainly – you know that he became dean of the Florida State University College of Business in 2016; declared a path to preeminence; accentuated his “Four P’s” -- people, programs, place and posture; and led a years-long, all-hands-on push to fund and build the college’s world-class dream home, Legacy Hall. 

Here’s what he would want you to know: 

When people ask him about his legacy, he says: “It’s all about the impact we’ve had on students and the lives we’ve changed along the way. To me, that’s where the legacy happens. It’s about the students. It’s all about the people.” 

The College of Business salutes Hartline, its sixth dean, as it observes its 75th anniversary and moves in into its futuristic five-story facility, which stands as the largest academic building in the history of FSU. 

Those who know Hartline say his appreciation for people especially manifests in his treatment of students and employees. 

About faculty and staff members: “We're in a unique place as a college because for 10 years we've had a dean who really values people,” says Kathleen McCullough, the college’s senior associate dean for academic affairs and Kathryn Magee Kip Professor of Risk Management and Insurance. “And we’re grateful for that.” 

About students: “His door is always open,” says Andrea White, assistant to the dean and senior administrative specialist. “He loves engaging with them, and you can tell it’s genuine.” 

It’s also lasting. Hartline relishes his “full-circle moments,” such as fall 2022 when Alivia Thompson graduated with a degree in marketing. About 21 years earlier, Hartline was an assistant professor at FSU when student Summer Bell came to class with her baby because she had no daycare. A father of three young daughters at the time, Hartline held the baby – Alivia -- as he lectured, giving Bell time to take notes and relax. 

“I understood what Summer was going through and wanted to help,” Hartline told the Tallahassee Democrat after Alivia’s graduation ceremony. “Full-circle moments like that and Alivia’s graduation make my job so incredibly rewarding.”

‘The right direction’ and ‘one direction’ 

Faculty members and alumni marvel at Hartline’s passion, dedication and vision. Dennis Cradit, a retired College of Business faculty member and associate dean, calls him precise, thorough and tenacious. Dr. William T. Hold, a 2012 College of Business Alumni Hall of Fame inductee, calls him principled and “kind-hearted but tough-minded.” McCullough says Hartline “keeps the ship moving in the right direction and in one direction.”

Colleagues point back 14 years to Hartline’s time as an associate dean when he and Caryn Beck-Dudley, the dean at the time, launched the first serious effort to fund and build a new facility, a process that dates to the early 2000s. Colleagues note the effort grew to include FSU President Richard McCullough and other university administrators, alumni and friends, faculty and staff members, state officials and former deans. 

Like university leaders and alumni, Hartline credits President McCullough for prioritizing Legacy Hall from the time he became president in August 2021 and for playing a major role in the $160 million facility’s funding and construction. 

“But one man for the last decade doggedly pursued that project,” Cradit says, referring to Hartline.  

“I want to be really clear,” Jamie Harden, chair of the college’s Board of Governors, told students, gesturing to Hartline, during a recent Charles A. Bruning Speaker Series event.  “I’ve been on this board for 12 years, and (Legacy Hall) does not happen without this man.” 

It has been an exceptional tenure for Hartline, whose persistence promoting preeminence has kept the college’s faculty and programs in the Top 25 nationally, with many in the Top 10. 

Cradit, who served as business dean at two universities and as an associate dean under Hartline, says Hartline has mastered the challenge of walking “the fine line between being a dean who supports students and faculty and, at the same time, understanding the vital role of donors, fundraising and outside constituencies. That’s why the college is so great.” 

The college also knows Hartline as an eloquent speaker and a charming host, with laugh-blooming wit. This writer recalls a time when a donor was sitting in Hartline’s office and signing a major gift agreement. Pen in hand, the donor noted that he’d accidentally added a zero to the gift amount and went to scribble it out, to which Hartline said with a smile: “What’s an extra zero between friends?” 

Away from the office, Hartline focuses on the rest of his family’s Five M’s: wife Marsha, associate dean for student affairs in the FSU College of Nursing, and daughters Meghan, Madison and Mallory. He also enjoys spending time with the family’s two dogs, Miso and Tillie, and a cat, Sam.

Meghan and Madison earned undergraduate degrees from the University of Alabama, which their dad, a native of Birmingham, Ala., had aspired to attend. Marsha, Madison and Mallory all boast degrees from FSU. Among them, the parents and daughters boast 14 degrees, reflecting the family’s dedication to education and leaving Dad Hartline in a perpetual state of pride. 

‘How can I help this student?’ 

Hartline’s journey included musical, technological and humble foundations. When he graduated high school, he wanted to become a band director. He also had tinkered with computers for years, leading his father to encourage him to pursue a degree in computer science. His parents couldn’t afford to send him to the University of Alabama, his dream school, so he spent his first year of college living at home and attending the University of Alabama-Birmingham. 

As a first-generation college student, he didn’t fully grasp the application process and opportunities available to him, and neither did his parents. He didn’t know until he spent one year at UAB that he could have received a full academic scholarship from Jacksonville State University, where he transferred as a sophomore and later met Marsha Wood, now his wife of 36 years.  

Outside of class, he worked in the shoe department at Kmart, which helped pay the bills. His wife, also a first-generation student, said the experience shaped the attention her husband gives to all students.  

“He considers every student from every perspective, always asking how he can support them and what the college can do to help all students, especially first-generation students facing challenges similar to his own, succeed,” Marsha Hartline says. 

At Jacksonville State, marketing professor P.J. Forrest saw Hartline’s potential and encouraged him to consider a career as an academic. Hartline earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and an MBA at Jacksonville State. He later earned a Ph.D. in business administration with a major in marketing at the University of Memphis, where he met lifelong friend, mentor and coauthor, O.C. Ferrell. 

He spent nine years as an assistant professor of marketing at three universities before interviewing for a faculty position at FSU’s Department of Marketing, where Dennis Cradit served as chair. Cradit and the hiring committee noted Hartline’s background, calmness and thoroughness.  

“At the airport, when we dropped him off, I handed him an envelope and said, “That’s our offer. I want you to come,’” Cradit said. He recalled no other time when he offered a faculty candidate a job on the spot. 

‘A genuine care for others’ 

Hartline started at FSU in 2001 and flourished as a teacher and researcher. He became chair of the Department of Marketing in 2006 when Cradit left FSU to become business dean at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. In 2011, Dean Beck-Dudley promoted him to associate dean for strategic initiatives, launching his work on Legacy Hall, a name he coined. 

Hartline became interim dean upon Beck-Dudley’s departure in 2015. He was named FSU’s business dean the following year and now oversees undergraduate enrollment of 9,544, a 30% increase over the past five years. 

William Hold, the benefactor of the college’s No. 2-ranked Dr. William T. Hold/The Alliance’s Program in Risk Management and Insurance, served on the dean’s hiring committee and today notes Hartline’s talent for picking and promoting leaders and for turning an initiative into an imperative. 

“He doesn't come across as a hard-nosed person, but he has what I call the ‘gloved-fist’ approach,” Hold says. “Underneath the glove is a pretty good fist, and when he wants to do things, he gets them done.” 

For 24 years, Marsha Hartline says, her husband has maintained an “unwavering passion for FSU” and has led with “dedication, integrity and a genuine care for others.” 

“I see it every day, virtually every moment,” she says. 

She emphasizes the breadth and depth of her husband’s job, including the time he spends on the road and in the air for national conferences, speaking engagements, alumni events, fundraising and other high-profile duties. In 2022, President McCullough appointed him to the interim role of vice president for university advancement and president of the FSU Foundation during FSU’s search to find a permanent successor, Marla Vickers. 

Marsha says her husband’s work ethic stays powered by a motor that never idles and a mind that never rests, always occupied by the next initiative, opportunity or goal. As an example, the genesis of one major philanthropic investment came via a text conversation with Chris Iansiti, a 2023 college Alumni Hall of Fame inductee and the chairman of the FSU Foundation Board of Trustees, while Hartline soared 30,000 feet above northern Florida on a flight from Miami to Atlanta. 

Amid the nonstop engagement, his love of cruises comes in handy, allowing him to unplug on the open seas. As for his appreciation for classical music, Marsha Hartline sometimes finds her husband with his headphones on, chilling out and winding down to the music of his favorite composers, Bernstein, Mozart, Beethoven or Copland. 

He allows himself these occasional escapes because “he has built an amazing team he can depend on and takes comfort in knowing that they have his back,” she says.  

‘We couldn’t have a better dean’  

Kathleen McCullough, the senior associate dean, says Hartline has “created a very loyal faculty and staff because when life gets tough, Mike goes above and beyond to be there.” For example, he tells employees to take care of an ailing parent or child or not to rush back from the hospital or a funeral. 

Says White, Hartline’s assistant of six years: “The dean has always been kind to me. We couldn’t have a better dean.” 

Twice in the past three years, a national academic-focused organization declared Hartline its Outstanding Dean: Beta Alpha Psi in 2023 and the University Sales Center Alliance in 2025. This fall, after the completion of Legacy Hall, the college’s Board of Governors voiced similar sentiment, honoring him with the Dean Michael D. Hartline Leadership Endowment for Dean’s Discretionary Funding. 

“Dean Hartline has led the college to this preeminence, and he has been focused on the specific purpose of elevating the entire college,” says Scott Price, a Board of Governors member and a 2022 inductee into the college’s Alumni Hall of Fame. “And we wanted to band together to show how much we appreciate him.” 

The former trombone player wouldn’t toot his own horn, telling attendees of the college’s joint board meeting that he felt honored and humbled but also “a little embarrassed” by the named endowment because the college’s success isn’t about him. 

“It has never been about me,” he says. “I have two north stars: servant leadership and student success. It’s about serving others, our College of Business and FSU families.” 

He adds: “There is a reason that ‘People’ is the first ‘P’ on the path to preeminence.” 

-- Pete Reinwald