Cesar Gonzmart '41

*March 6, 1920 - December 9, 1992

The late Dr. Cesar Gonzmart studied violin at Stetson on a scholarship for several years beginning in 1937. Gonzmart, went on to earn a doctorate in music from the University of Havana, Cuba.

Born Cesar Gonzalez-Martinez in West Tampa, he began violin lessons at the age of six. By his early twenties he was traveling the world as a concert violinist. He changed his name to Gonzmart, using the first part of his parents' surnames, and formed an orchestra called "Cesar Gonzmart and his Continental Orchestra," which played major hotels across the United States.

He married Adela Hernandez, a concert pianist, in 1946, and they performed together through the early 1950s. She was the only child of Carmen and Casimiro Hernandez Jr., and the granddaughter of Casimiro Hernandez Sr., who founded the Columbia Restaurant in 1905. In 1953, when her father's health was failing, the Gonzmarts returned to Tampa with their sons, Casey and Richard, and settled down to run the restaurant.

As a businessman, Gonzmart retained his artistic flair, moving about the restaurant in a tuxedo, charming the patrons and often playing the violin. Under his leadership, the Columbia expanded to six Florida locations, including Sarasota and St. Augustine. In 2005, the restaurant celebrates its 100th anniversary with the opening of its seventh restaurant in West Palm Beach.

Gonzmart was knighted by the King of Spain in 1971 as a Knight of Sant'Yago, the patron saint of Spain. Before his death in 1992, he was named Outstanding Restaurateur by Holiday magazine, and the Columbia was a 12-time winner of Florida Trend's Golden Spoon Award. In 1993, he was inducted posthumously into the Tampa Bay Business Hall of Fame and in 1995 was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Restaurant Association.

Lois Thacker Graessle '39

*December 26, 1916 - December 7, 2007

Lois Thacker Graessle, was a selfless volunteer who earned a law degree in 1941. She found the profession virtually closed to women in Florida at the time but she used her knowledge to pursue social justice with a vengeance.

Graessle received a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from Stetson in 1939, where she led the women's basketball team and helped to coach the DeLand High School girls' team. She went on to earn her law degree from the University of Florida, where she was the only woman in her class.

Graessle married after law school and moved to Jacksonville but could not find a position as an attorney. She began volunteering, trying to help those least able to help themselves: minorities, women, children, the poor, and the terminally ill. She supported racial equality at a time when many were satisfied with legal segregation.

She chaired the Jacksonville Mayor's Child and Youth Care Study in the '60s and worked to see it implemented. She encouraged her church to begin a child-care center and helped establish emergency shelters in Jacksonville for abused children. She chaired a committee investigating unmet human needs in Duval County in the '80s. She helped found Hospice of Northeast Florida, and lobbied to enable terminally ill persons to receive hospice care at home. Still active, in 2002 she chaired a Special Committee on Building a Community System of Care for Children, examining the care received by foster children.

Graessle has been awarded many honors, including a Medal of Honor from the Florida Bar Foundation for her "lifetime of selfless volunteer service in the pursuit of justice." She won the Florida Times-Union EVE award for women in 1970 and 1988, as well as the EVE of the Decade award for the '80s. She was honored by the National United Way in 1970, listed as one of 14 outstanding women in Florida by the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women in 1975, and named to Stetson's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1981. She won the 2001 Volunteer Jacksonville Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2002 Woman of Distinction Award from the Girl Scouts of the Gateway Council; and has been honored by the NAACP, Community Planning Council, and Jacksonville Urban League. In 2000, the Florida Supreme Court recognized her as one of Florida's First 100 Women Lawyers.

R. Dean Hollis '82

R. Dean Hollis, son of Mark and Lynn Hollis of Lakeland, and a 1982 Stetson graduate in Psychology, serves as executive vice president of ConAgra Foods Retail Products. He provides executive leadership to the Refrigerated Foods and Deli business units, and leads sales and operations planning for all of ConAgra's retail products. ConAgra Foods, Inc., with annual revenues of approximately $15 billion, is one of North America's largest packaged food suppliers, focused on retail, foodservice and ingredient customers.

Hollis joined ConAgra Foods in 1987, holding increasingly responsible positions in sales, trade marketing, and general management. Before joining ConAgra, he was with the TreeSweet Companies, holding management positions in both sales and trade marketing. He began his career in the Consumer Products division of Georgia-Pacific, where he spent four years in a variety of sales positions.

A member of the Stetson University Board of Trustees, he chairs its Marketing and Development Committee, and established the R. Dean Hollis Challenger Scholarship in 2001. He has also served Stetson as a member of the Board of Advisors of the School of Business Administration and the Prince Entrepreneurship Program Board of Overseers. He resides in Omaha, Neb., with his wife, Lisa, and their five children.

Jon D. Solomon '90

Jon D. Solomon, earned a graduate business degree from Stetson in 1990, and is now a partner in Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company. Focusing on the health and life sciences industry, he works with hospitals, health insurance, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Solomon, who was born in Ft. Lauderdale, earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Washington and Lee University, before coming to Stetson for his MBA. He joined Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in Tampa after receiving his degree in 1990.

Under his leadership, the firm's four Florida offices experienced unprecedented growth. He was also heavily involved in setting information technology strategy for AvMed Healthplan, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, and Orlando Regional Healthcare System.

Moving to a position as a director of First Consulting Group, he served on its health services executive team from 1997-2000, working with the Department of Defense, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Kaiser Permanente, MedCost, PacifiCare, and University Community Hospital.

Now back at Accenture as a partner, his clients include Highmark (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Pennsylvania) and Trigon (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Virginia). Recently, he has been leading a group with personnel based in the United States, India, the Philippines and elsewhere, requiring extensive travel on his part, which he says only deepens his appreciation of the United States.

Solomon is a regular visitor and speaker to the students in the School of Business Administration, and has also been helpful in the placement and career development of many Stetson alumni. Among his other business ventures, he is involved in Javic Properties, a residential development firm in Tampa, and he is a frequent writer and speaker in his field.

Bingham L. Vick, Jr. '66

Dr. Bingham L. Vick, Jr., is a professor of music and choral director whose life-long work with singers has brought him many honors, and placed his graduates as leaders of outstanding choral programs in universities, high schools, and churches across the country.

Dr. Vick, who was born in Charlotte, N.C., received a Bachelor of Arts in Music in 1966 from Stetson, where he was active in student government, Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, the Baptist Student Union, the Concert Choir, and Omicron Delta Kappa honorary. He went on to Northwestern University, earning a master's degree in Vocal Performance and a doctorate in Musicology.

Dr. Vick has been on the faculty at Furman University since 1970, he teaches voice, conducting, choral literature, and vocal-choral methods. He also directs the Furman Singers, a 100-voice singing group that has twice performed for national conventions of the American Chorale Directors Association. In 1996, they performed with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra in a nationally televised July 4 concert. Last summer he led their 16th biennial concert tour of Europe.

He is the artistic director and conductor of the 200-voice Greenville Chorale. He founded and conducts the Chorale Chamber Ensemble, a 20-voice professional choral ensemble. In 2003, he retired after 28 years of service as musical director at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Greenville.

He received Furman's Meritorious Teacher Award in 1984, and South Carolina's Order of the Palmetto in 2000 in recognition of his outstanding leadership and contributions to the arts. In 2004, the South Carolina Arts Commission gave him the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor's Award for his individual leadership in the arts.

Dr. Vick published a textbook, "Conducting What Matters Most," in 2003. He also edited and published a new English translation of Max Bruch's oratorio, "Moses," in 1996, and conducted its American premier with the Greenville Chorale and the Greenville Symphony Orchestra.