USF pioneer, 78, namesake of student center
Phyllis Marshall arrived on campus in 1960 and devoted much of her life to the school and its students.
By LESLIE PAREDES
Published February 8, 2005
TAMPA - Phyllis Marshall was an institution at the University of South Florida, where she helped shape several generations of students during her long tenure as director of the student union.
She died Saturday (Feb. 5, 2005) in her sleep. She was 78. The building she helped run for 34 years, the Marshall Center, was named after her when she retired in 1994.
USF was just a few years old when she arrived on campus in 1960. Joe Tomaino, a former alumni director who worked closely with her in those early days, said she was the kind of leader and pioneer the school needed.
"Everything students are involved in can be traced back to Phyllis Marshall," Tomaino said. She created hospitality committees, interest clubs and intramural sports despite then-USF president John Allen's opposition to most anything not having to do with academics.
Many of the students she worked closely with say she had a major impact on their lives.
"She is one of those people who affected so much of who I am today," said Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa, who was USF's student government president in 1977-1978. "Taking a kid out of inner-city Tampa and just teaching him everything he needed to know to find success, she did that for me."
Debbie Lum, USF's director of commencement, remembers what it was like to walk with her through the student union after it was renamed in her honor.
"She would stick out her hand and say, "I'm Phyllis Marshall,"' Lum said. "I was impressed with how immediately students who did not know her took to her. She would take her introduction to a student and turn it into a friendship."
Even after she retired, she continued to volunteer at the university.
"Every day, she gave the students the genuine emotion of "alma mater,"' Tomaino said. "She was the soul mother incarnate. You can't learn that in a book."
She is survived by three brothers: Dana Parkins, Garden Grove, Calif., Forest Parkins, Buffalo, W.Va., and Richard Parkins, Conway, Ark.; and a sister, Carolyn Campbell, Ocean Isle, N.C.
There will be no funeral services. Memorial services will be held at USF this spring.
--Times staff writer Kevin Graham contributed to this report.