Long after Jacksonville University’s newest graduates had strolled across the stage to receive their degrees Saturday, many of them remained on campus.
Waiting their turn to talk to an icon — a legend, really — at the university.
A trailblazer with a litany of “firsts” on her resume, including being the first female president at JU or any other Florida university, for that matter. A woman with a presence as vibrant as her signature bright red or canary yellow outfits.
President Tim Cost just stood back and watched as one generation met another.
He knows the power of Frances Bartlett Kinne, who at 98 remains a beloved and vital member of the JU community.
She started there as a professor in 1958 and, as Cost said when he introduced her Saturday, “Thank goodness for all of us, she has never left.”
The graduates had just heard Kinne share lessons about the power of persistence, positivity and gratitude. But many wanted another chance to interact with the woman for whom the university center at JU is named.
Kinne welcomed guest after guest, most in their 20s, but some in their 30s and 40s.
Their age didn’t matter. “They were all just giddy,” Cost said.
The students have always been Kinne’s priority, one of the many ways she’s shown her leadership over the years.
In his introduction, Cost recounted how he felt when as a JU pitcher, he would walk out to the mound, look down the line and see Kinne watching the game on an 86-degree April afternoon.
“It seeps into your brain that that’s what a leader does,” he said.
Cost said Kinne spent as much time with the students as she did with the deans, the heads of academic affairs and the largest donors.
That affection was clear Saturday.
A life of persistence, positivity and gratitude
“The reason I’m coming here is because I love each one of you,” Kinne said near the beginning of her address. “I am so proud of you.”
She drew laughs as she talked about a question she is often asked: How did you get so old?
“I’m not sure how I got so old,” Kinne said.
A Mayo Clinic study said positive thinkers — which she is — live 10 years longer than others.
“Well, I’m already on the 10 years,” she said.
Kinne talked about the importance of persistence, using her seven-year quest to get Bob Hope and Jack Benny to visit JU together.
“Everybody said I was crazy,” Kinne said.
When scheduling differences finally cleared and the two celebrities were at JU in 1972, Kinne said 75 reporters from around the world covered the event. Because of that international publicity, JU received admissions applications from dozens of countries the next year.
Persistence, she said, “not only pays you back in what you’re going to do, but it will pay you back in happiness.”
Kinne stressed the importance of showing gratitude, sharing the story of when she decided to thank a professor from her college days by baking her an angel food cake. “And I’m a terrible baker,” she said.
When she delivered the cake, the professor started to cry, making Kinne believe she should have made the gesture long before she did.
Kinne learned she had cancer on her leg the day after Cost asked her to speak at Saturday’s ceremony. (Cost said he asked her sometime between the end of April through mid-May.)
The first thing Kinne said she told the doctor was, “I can’t do this because I’m speaking at the graduation.”
Then she said, “Now take care of me as fast as you can.”
The next day, Kinne had surgery at Mayo Clinic, where she is an honorary staff member because she helped bring the hospital to Jacksonville.
Doctors were able to remove the cancer from her leg, Kinne said, as the audience applauded.
“I give you credit for this. I really do,” she said. “You were my inspiration.”
Grace during unexpected circumstances
The graduates saw firsthand how Kinne handles life’s unexpected moments, when a student videographer fainted during the ceremony and needed emergency care.
As the startled crowd looked on, Kinne calmly said, “We have a little emergency here.”
For just under 10 minutes, she stayed at the podium, occasionally talking to the crowd as the student was being cared for, then taken to a hospital. (He is fine, university officials said.)
During that time, Kinne told the graduates she admired how the situation was being handled; recounted how she had to be taken to the emergency room a couple of times; and talked about the need to “give our love and blessings to somebody who has this happen.”
She also told them about another graduation ceremony unexpectedly interrupted when speaker Frank Skinner, who was CEO of BellSouth, was sitting in a chair that broke.
“He was flat on the stage,” she said, but unharmed.
About a month later, a box from Skinner arrived containing a wooden chair, painted in JU colors, with a special addition: a seatbelt. Kinne still has the chair.
Kinne cut her speech short after the student’s medical emergency. She ended it much the same way she started, by showering the graduates with praise and congratulations.
“And my love to you as you go out and make the world better,” she said.
In turn, many of them showed Kinne respect as they stopped to shake hands with her on stage before receiving their degrees from Cost.
Committed to 100
After the ceremony, Cost said he invited Kinne to deliver the commencement address because she “closes the arc between the modern JU and all of its incarnations, from the late 1950s to the 21st century.”
She was president when Cost was a student, chancellor emerita when he joined JU’s board and a trusted confidant when he was offered the job as president.
Now, he sees her every week and invites her to countless JU events.
Cost invited audience members to send Kinne a birthday card on May 23, when she will turn 99.
“I hope you’ll remember that,” he said.
Afterward, Cost said Kinne is committed to reaching the age of 100.
Seems possible for a woman whose life is powered by persistence and positivity.
@editormarilyn
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