Named Spaces Projects | Florida Tech

Gordon Nelson Health Sciences Building

The Gordon Nelson Health Sciences Building

Location

Olin Quad

Year Established

2022

Purpose

To advance research and education in health sciences and related fields.

History

Story to be added

Ted and Melissa Parker Early Intervention Classroom

Location

The Scott Center for Autism

Year Established

2019

Purpose

To improve the lives of children and families affected by autism through treatment, research and training.

History

In 2015 Melissa and Ted Parker founded their non-profit, The Parker Foundation for Autism and Child Development, to provide free resources to children and families impacted by autism and special needs through three fully funded programs specializing in education, sports and the arts.

Ted Parker graduated from the University of Central Florida and holds Bachelor’s Degrees in Business Administration and Management Information Systems. He participated in collegiate athletics during his educational career and was a dual-varsity athlete. He remains active with the University through the Alumni Association and the Golden Knights Clubs. 

Ted is Founder and CEO of Revolution Technologies and has more than two decades of experience in solutions, contracting, and staffing. He is responsible for Revolution’s overall vision and direction and remains very active in the day-to-day operations with a high focus on client development and supply chain. 

Ted strongly believes in giving back to his community financially, and by volunteering his time. He is actively involved in charitable organizations such as the Scott Center for Autism, where he is a member of the advisory board.

Melissa came to the area through the military when her father was transferred to Patrick Air Force Base in 1987. A graduate of Satellite High School, she obtained her degree as a Registered Nurse from Eastern Florida State College and worked in the acute care settings at Homes Regional Medical Center and Florida Hospital until the birth of her son. 

In 2008 Melissa established Precision Screening, Inc., a background screening, education, and employment verification organization where she currently serves clients both at a local and national level. 

Melissa keeps her nursing license active, so that she may use her expertise to advocate for children and families affected by autism. She also currently holds the title of Mrs. Southeast International 2017 and uses the platform to reach a broader audience for autism awareness and to inspire others to give back in their communities. 

Ted and Melissa have two children: their son, Brendan, and daughter, Carson. Their son was diagnosed with autism in 2010 and attended The Scott Center for Autism to receive early intervention ABA Therapy. The couple founded The Parker Foundation for Autism and Child Development in January 2015 to take a more hands-on approach to serving families touched by Autism Spectrum Disorders and related disabilities, like their family.  

Through their three fully funded programs---Speak Through Sports, Speak Through Arts, and Speak Through Education---they are working to enrich the lives of and bridge the gap between children with autism, their families, and the community in which we live. 

Vik and Sandy Verma Lobby

Location

The Scott Center for Autism

Year Established

2019

Purpose

To improve the lives of children and families affected by autism through treatment, research and training.

History

Vik and Sandy Verma Lobby

"The key to life is always about surrounding yourself with the right people. It does not matter where they come from or what god they worship or what their gender or color or caste or creed is. When all you focus on is what is in a person's head and what is in their heart, you will see amazing opportunities for your own defining moments."

-Vik Verma

Fred & Meredith Sutton Functional Assessment Area and Playground

Location

The Scott Center for Autism

Year Established

2019

Purpose

To improve the lives of children and families affected by autism through treatment, research and training.

History

Fred & Meredith Sutton Functional Assessment Area

Fred and Meredith Sutton are longtime residents of Brevard County and have worked together to make this area one of the best places to live.

With a Master’s in Finance, Fred E. Sutton worked for the largest architectural–engineering–planning firm in the southeastern U.S., with clients like Disney World and ITT Levitt. In 1972, Fred and his brother, Harrold, co-founded Sutton Properties, now one of the largest family-owned real estate development firms in Brevard County, where they own and operate 1 million square feet of commercial, residential and industrial properties. In 2019, Fred contacted Florida Tech with a desire to lead a room-naming campaign to build an endowment for The Scott Center for Autism Treatment.

Although he does not have a family connection to autism, he is a close friend of Scott Center founders Ed and Cheryl Scott and was touched by the impact the Center has on families in the community. Based on his challenge, The Scott Center raised over $700,000 in its first year to launch an endowment that will sustain its programs in perpetuity.

Joy and Gordon Patterson Botanical Garden

Location

Botanical Garden

Year Established

2021

Purpose

To preserve and maintain the beauty of the natural garden hammock as a peaceful place for wellness and inspiration for the campus community and its visitors.

History

Gardens have always occupied a special place in our lives. ; Nearly fifty years ago we were married in UCLA's Mathias Botanical Garden. ; Our introduction to Florida Tech was a walk beneath these palms. ; Later, our son grew up playing here. ; Gardens teach us much. ; They remind us to cherish the fleeting beauty of the present and our responsibility to the future. ; Life is short no matter how long one lives. ; It is our hope that this garden will endure as a place of peace and beauty for generations to come. ; ; ;

- Joy and Gordon Patterson

***

F.I.T. acquired the first forty acres of its present campus fronting on Country Club Road through a generous donation from the University of Melbourne in 1960. The land was originally owned by V.C. Brownlie who had donated the 40 acres to the University of Melbourne for educational purposes. After a few years of operation, and has built a small building on the site, the University decided that it was no longer viable as an educational institution. Of course, there was some competition from others who were interested in acquiring the property. Enter Mrs. Virginia Wood who, while Chairman of the University of Melbourne, was instrumental in donating the land to F.I.T. I believe the critical factor in our favor was my pledge to maintain the natural hammock that threaded through the property and to not disturb any of the trees unnecessarily. Conservation was of great concern to the U of Melbourne as it is to us. "Brownlie" and "Wood" Halls derive their names from these two key players in the process of the evolution of F.I.T. as we know it today.

Attempts at landscaping the campus began almost immediately. We planted a row of royal palms on the new campus all along Country Club Road. People were pouring in from the north expecting to see palms everywhere. I didn't intend to disappoint them, they would see plenty of them at F.I.T. But then came January 1961 and most of my beautiful royals turned into skinny haystacks. One of them has survived to this day and was subsequently transplanted to the protected south side of the "Quad". The unusually cold winters it has endured are readily evident by the gross irregularities of its trunk profile.

It was evident that I had a lot to learn about palms but I soon heard of a man named Dent Smith who could help me. He had founded a palm society and was growing a great many species in Daytona Beach. It seemed obvious that whatever he could grow there we should be able to grow here. A visit to his place was easily arranged and set the stage for a lasting friendship and a mutual interest in developing a palm garden at F.I.T. In subsequent years Dent Smith contributed greatly and in many ways to accomplish this. To recognize him we dedicated the trail through the hammock garden as the Dent Smith Trail.

During the construction of the dormitory complex, I was informed by the Fla Power & Light Co. that it would be necessary to dig a trench through the hammock to lay a power cable to the dorms. I had no choice but to agree to the project but extracted a promise from FP&L to snake the trench and cable around the existing trees and palms. This they did and it worked out well. Students began to use the narrow filled-in trench as a shortcut to the dorms. The winding path crossing the hammock seemed to have a natural beauty all of its own [later to become the Dent Smith Trail]. A curving concrete bridge was built over the stream and Dent Smith and I began to plant Chinese fan palms [Livistona chinensis] along the way to complement the natural stand of Sabal palmettos. A potential for developing the hammock into an accessible place of beauty while maintaining its natural setting was becoming apparent. A botanical garden was about to unfold on the campus of the Florida Institute of Technology.

The palm garden is a native hardwood hammock in the floodplain of Crane Creek. The canopy of live and laurel oaks, red maple, and cabbage palms are adapted to having their feet wet when the creek floods. This dense canopy provides a greenhouse effect so that cold-sensitive plants might better survive periods of cold weather. The soil is fertile and wet and supports abundant jungle-like growth.

In 1972 the Board of Trustees formerly dedicated this "jungle" as the students call it, as a botanical garden. At one time there were approximately 400 species of palms, but the subsequent freezes in recent years have reduced this number to about 60. Many have silver identification tags.

Dr. Jerome Keuper

Geraldine E. Phipps Biomedical Lab

Location

Gordon Nelson Health Sciences Building

Year Established

2022

Purpose

To advance research and education in health sciences and related fields.

History

Geraldine (Geri) E. Phipps (nee Otey) 

November 9, 1929 – January 31, 2021 

Geri was born in Brooklyn, NY, as the only child of James H. Otey, Jr. and M. Frances Johnson Otey.  Geri received her BS in nursing from Adelphi University in Garden City, NY, and her MS in nursing education from St. John’s College, Queens, NY.  After her father’s early death in 1945, Geri summered with her mother on Chebeague Island in Maine where she met Robert (Bob) Hubbard Phipps.  They married on June 16, 1956, and lived in Lindenhurst, NY, through Bob’s early death on April 13, 1965.  

After Bob’s early death, Geri worked to support her young family of three children (who ranged in age from 2 to 7 years at the time of Bob’s death) as a School Nurse Teacher in the Lindenhurst public schools.  In 1971, Geri relocated with her three children (Jim, Tom and Barbara) to Merritt Island, FL.   

Geri was dedicated to the value of high quality education and she supported all of her three children and eight grandchildren in their pursuit of college and postgraduate education.  Geri’s middle child, Tom Phipps, attended Florida Tech for his freshman year before transferring to FSU where he received his BS in 1983.   

Geri attributed “son Tom’s” success in college to the start he got while at Florida Tech.  She named Florida Tech as one of four educational institutions in her charitable remainder trust.  Geri’s children wish to thank Florida Tech for naming this laboratory in her honor and appreciate that the education of future students will benefit from her legacy.  

Douglas M. Schuler Laboratory

Location

Gordon Nelson Health Sciences Building

Year Established

2014

Purpose

History

Purpose

History

Lawrence “Larry” E. Mertens (1929–2017) was Florida Tech’s first marine biology instructor and significantly contributed to Florida Tech. Larry designed and ran the first summer field course for underwater photography in the Bahamas and became the instructor for the university’s first course in optical oceanography. Additionally, he was the first Florida Tech faculty member to author a college-level textbook on in-water photography. In 2015, Larry and his wife, Margarete, established the Lawrence and Margarete Mertens Endowed Fellowship to benefit graduate students in the College of Engineering and Science. Larry’s estate included a gift of $1 million to build a facility in support of ocean and marine sciences, but his total giving exceeded $2 million.

The Dan DeRosa Sensory Room

Location

The Scott Center for Autism

Year Established

2022

Purpose

History

Daniel C. DeRosa was born in Danbury, Connecticut to Daniel and Linda DeRosa. He was an active and successful athlete at Danbury High School as a member of both the Varsity Football and Varsity Wrestling teams. He competed and became a Nationally ranked wrestler in high school and played football in college while pursuing his bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Western Connecticut State University, where he was also the President of the Psychology Club. He was an extremely talented poet and was a member of the winning team that won the 2008 National Poetry Slam at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Dan discovered his life’s passion of working with children with autism at a program in Connecticut. He then moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to do Applied Behavior Analysis programming at Bancroft. He wanted to make a better life for these children and was able to touch their spirits in a special way.

Dan then moved to Florida to attend the Florida Institute of Technology to pursue and achieve a dual master’s degree in Applied Behavioral Science and Organizational Behavior Management. He worked as a Graduate Assistant and the Social Skills Coordinator at The Scott Center for Autism Treatment. He worked to prepare pre-school and elementary age children to go into their least restrictive environment – most often the regular education classroom. Dan also consulted with the Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI Academy as well as presented at ABA and FABA. He loved presenting and learning. His love for children with autism was evident in all he did. He was always looking for ways to help them and their families have meaningful and productive lives. Dan had a great sense of humor and an infectious laugh. He was an avid reader. He trained in Kung Fu and Judo and had a passion for all martial arts.

Sadly, Dan passed away suddenly on September 29, 2011, at the age of 33. At the time of his death, he was a Doctoral student at FIT and was so excited to complete his PhD. He is greatly missed by his family and all who knew him. It is his family ‘s wish to continue Dan’s legacy through The Scott Center for Autism Treatment.