Dr. Robert Earnest planted the seeds of preeminence on the Florida State University College of Business’ early landscape, helping to modernize the undergraduate curriculum and establish master’s and doctoral programs after joining the faculty in 1957. He also served his students as a mentor and a “consummate educator,” as Dean Charles Rovetta called him. Earnest served as a humble, practical and no-nonsense chair of the finance department and director of the MBA program. In the late 1960s, he served as chairman of FSU’s Athletic Committee, which laid the groundwork for the Seminoles’ rise to a football powerhouse. 

He attended West Point military academy and earned his doctoral degree from Ohio State University.

Earnest retired in 1981 and died in 2001. After his death, the university promptly established a president and provost’s named professorship in his honor.