Donald Nast served for more than three decades as a College of Business ambassador and Department of Finance stalwart who helped the college cut its path to preeminence.

Nast joined the finance faculty as an assistant professor in 1973 and retired as SunTrust Associate Professor in 2005 – spending his last 26 years as department chair. 

Known for an open door, a genuine smile, a calm and courteous demeanor and selfless acts of service, Nast distinguished himself as a teacher, mentor, scholar and administrator.

A few years before his retirement, former doctoral students initiated and financed a scholarship fund in his honor – a testament to his lasting effect on those he served and inspired. To illustrate Nast’s effects on their lives, studies and futures, students voted him recipient of the 1994 “Being There” Award from the university’s Division of Student Affairs. He also won FSU teaching excellence awards and served in leadership roles of multiple academic journals.

Former colleagues say he also was quick to mentor new department chairs in the college and – in his prevailing good nature – to help staff members understand complicated paperwork and terminology.

Outside of academia, Nast served on the investment advisory committee of the State Board of Administration of Florida, which manages the assets of the Florida Retirement System, and SBA officials say his expertise helped the organization build its track record for solid investments on behalf of more than a million Floridians.

Nast earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1961, an MBA from the University of Akron in 1970 and a Ph.D. in finance from Penn State University in 1975.