Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
MEGAN SCOTTNick Billiris is retiring May 24, 33 years after starting the Tarpon Springs campus of St. Petersburg College in a bank building with 152 students.
PALM HARBOR - Nick Billiris' father once told him, "Your contribution to this world will be your children."
It was a profound statement coming from Michael Billiris, who worked on the Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs and had only an elementary school education.
And what he probably never expected was that his son would go on to have more than 60,000 children.
"That's how it is in education," said Billiris, 68, who lives in Clearwater. "All of your students are your children."
It has been 33 years since Billiris started the Tarpon Springs campus of St. Petersburg College on the second floor of the Springs State Bank building.
Today, St. Petersburg College has several campuses and centers across Pinellas, with main campuses in Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, St. Petersburg and Seminole.
But in the fall of 1970, the school was known as St. Petersburg Junior College, and there were just 152 students enrolled in the college's program in Tarpon Springs. Billiris was a financial aid adviser, an admissions counselor, a professor and the janitor.
Next month, when Billiris retires as provost of the Tarpon Springs campus, it will have served more than 60,000 students, grown to 86 acres and expanded from a two-year college to a four-year college.
It's a bittersweet departure for the students and staffers who affectionately refer to Billiris as Mr. B.
"We're going to miss him," said Maria Edmonds, associate provost of the Tarpon Springs campus. "He's such a wonderful man. He has done so much to enrich the environment."
Billiris, one of eight children, grew up in Tarpon Springs just a few blocks from the current campus at U.S. 19 and Klosterman Road. His family immigrated from Greece to work in the sponge industry.
Neither of his parents had more than an elementary school education, but they encouraged all of their children to attend college.
"Their drive was to assure their children had an education, so they were all for it," Billiris said. "In most of the Greek families, education is a valued commodity. It's not a question of you need to convince somebody to go. You've got to work hard to convince them that you're not going to go."
Billiris attended St. Petersburg Junior College in the early 1950s. He and his classmates would gather at Alt. U.S. 19 and Tarpon Avenue about 5:30 a.m. to catch the school bus to the downtown St. Petersburg campus.
When it came to deciding between Florida State and the University of Florida, Billiris weighed the pros and cons. Florida State had been an all-girls school until 1947.
"My friends would say, "Why do you want to go to Florida State when you can go to Florida, which was predominantly a male college?' " Billiris said. "I said, "Guys, stop and think about that: all-girls college. . . . That's not a brain-buster.' "
Women weren't the only reason.
Florida State was also smaller than Florida. Billiris' senior class had only 42 students.
"That's the size of one of your English, math, government classes," he said, chuckling.
Billiris went on to graduate from Florida State in 1957. His first job was at Clearwater High School, teaching math and coaching football, baseball, basketball and swimming.
From there, he went to St. Petersburg Junior College to start the Tarpon Springs program in 1970.
He never left.
"Pinellas County had treated this end like it wasn't part of the county," Billiris said. "And then you weren't part of Hillsborough County. You weren't part of Pasco County. So it was always that struggle.
"Being an educator and speaking to the locals, I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to be able to bring some college classes to the community?' "
But then-SPJC president Michael Bennett said with the city being a small community, the school wouldn't generate enough students to make the plan work financially.
Billiris worked with then-Mayor George Tsourakas and other city officials to come up with a plan. The city agreed to pay the rent at Springs State Bank if the college provided the faculty.
They had three years to prove three things: The school would not lose money, the student population would grow and the quality of education would be no less than at the rest of the college.
The deal was sealed in February 1970. Morning and evening classes were scheduled to start in August. The best way to find students: Go door to door and talk to them about their plans for higher education.
"My initial thrust was to the high school graduates," Billiris said. "But there were other individuals in the community that had started taking classes at SPJC or some university and had that interrupted. This provided them an opportunity to get back into the educational mainstream."
The second year the enrollment was about 400 students. The numbers got bigger in the third year, along with the fourth and fifth years.
Tarpon Springs ran out of space in the bank building. And the school grew with classes all over the city: the old Tarpon Springs hospital, Tarpon Elementary School, Florida Power, City Hall, Tarpon Springs High School, the Boys and Girls Club, the Rotary Club building. The school even offered classes in New Port Richey and Brooksville.
But there still wasn't enough room.
"The third year, I said, "Don't you think we need to buy some land?' " Billiris said. "They said, "Well, we're still not sure we want to come to Tarpon.' "
Meanwhile, Billiris had already started looking for property. In 1972, SPJC bought about 52 acres on Klosterman Road. Just before the sale went through, the owner chopped down all the pine trees and tried to haul away dirt from a large hill. Billiris appealed to County Commissioner George Brumfield, who called a television reporter and faced down a waiting bulldozer.
The state gave SPJC $1-million to build and furnish its Tarpon Springs campus. It opened in 1975 with seven buildings, a total of about 21,000 square feet. In 1993, SPJC paid $1-million to buy an additional 18 acres on the east edge of the Tarpon Springs campus. A classroom building was added, along with a gym, a larger library and a new administration building.
Billiris beams with pride as he talks about St. Petersburg College's Tarpon Springs campus.
"Our focus here has been on our students in providing them every opportunity to succeed," Billiris said. "When you look at university students to be accepted, it's the SAT, GPA. Your population is pretty much a homogenous group. In a community college it's an open-door policy."
He shows off the Leeper-Rattner Museum of Art, which opened last year, the fitness facility, the cafeteria, the science labs and a 200,000-square-foot building under renovation.
The administration building is a one-stop shop with counseling, financial aid, job placement assistance and registration. It's also where one will find Billiris' office.
He has no secretary or student assistant. He answers his own phone and responds to his own e-mail, and his door is always open. No appointment is needed.
"He's pretty much open to anything," said Morgan Rawley, 22, a student at the school. "He always sees anybody who wants to see him. He's just a friendly face."
He doesn't usually ride in a golf cart but walks around campus, smiling and greeting students and staffers.
When he does use the cart, everyone scatters.
"Sure you don't want a ride?" he asks as he races to catch up with Sally Naylor, the dean of the College of Education. "You can ride in the flat bed."
Billiris also is modest.
When Tina O'Daniels, coordinator and program developer for the baccalaureate program, starts talking about how great he is, Billiris steps outside.
"I think he's a visionary," said O'Daniels, who graduated from the Tarpon campus in 1989. "His heart has always been for the betterment of the students. He's very goal-oriented, very make-it-happen."
Billiris could have gone somewhere else or coached football, but his heart belongs to St. Petersburg College.
His four sons went to St. Petersburg College. Three graduated from Florida State. The fourth went to Auburn but has a master's degree from FSU. Billiris has eight grandchildren. Everyone lives nearby.
"I've enjoyed what I'm doing, who I've worked with," he said. "When I go back to what was the purpose, why did I come here, (the answer) was to provide higher levels of education."