Peacocks Donate $1 Million For Athletic Scholarships
By Jim Lamar
A life-long love affair with Florida State University athletics helped convince Warner and Mary Kaye Peacock that they wanted to do something special for their alma mater. Within the last year, the Peacocks decided exactly how they wanted to help. Warner and his wife of 22 years, Mary Kaye, recently donated $1 million to help Seminole Boosters, Inc., continue to pay for scholarships for FSU student-athletes. The gift will be earmarked for the scholarship endowment fund for athletics.
Florida State has always been a very big part of our lives and is really part of our family, Warner Peacock said. Football games have meant a lot of good times with family and friends. That is just part of why Florida State is so special to us. My mother and father graduated from FSU. My two sisters graduated from Florida State. I've been an FSU supporter for as long as I can remember.
My earliest memory of FSU football was when I sold hot dogs at the stadium in the 60's. Of course, I am a huge fan of Coach Bowden for what he has done for us on the football field and his strong faith and family values. He is the best thing to ever happen to Florida State. Mary Kaye's sisters both went to Florida State. We just want to carry on the FSU tradition to our kids and our siblings' and friends' kids.
The tradition of giving back to FSU is something the Peacocks have been doing long before they decided to make this donation.
Charlie Barnes, the executive director and senior vice-president of Seminole Boosters, Inc., said the Peacocks have given time and treasure to help the Boosters and FSU athletics. That's why he said he is not at all surprised to see Warner and Mary Kaye Peacock make this gift.
The thing that really stands out is their generous spirit, Barnes said. Warner is always willing to help out, to step up, no matter what the project is as long as it will help the Seminoles. So many times, we've turned to him for the use of his company's plane to fly Coach Bowden to Booster functions and he always finds a way to accommodate. The Peacocks give their time and their treasure to Florida State without hesitation. Theirs is an extraordinary family.
Warner and Mary Kaye are perfect examples of the power and loyalty of our maturing alumni base. Florida State is well served and will prosper because of people like the Peacocks.
Warner Peacock grew up in Tallahassee — he is a Leon High graduate — and said he quickly learned to love the Seminoles as a youth.
I've followed FSU all the way back to the Bill Peterson days, he said. FSU football and basketball have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I just felt a connection to it from the very beginning.
I loved the history of Florida State athletics, football particularly, but my good friend Doug Mannheimer and I were there for many games when our basketball team made history in that magical season in '72, when we challenged for the national title. Growing up in Tallahassee, I knew people associated with the athletic program. It seemed like it was such a smaller world back then and I felt like a part of it. Now with the next generation of our family at FSU I feel that way again.
That love of FSU kept him in Tallahassee after high school. A member of Lambda Chi Alpha, Peacock graduated with a degree in business with a major in accounting in 1980. He accepted a job with Club Corporation of America, based in Dallas, following graduation and then returned to Florida in 1982. Now living in Maitland, the Orlando businessman is involved in real estate development, new car dealerships and banking. He is a member of the Founding Board of Directors for Orange Bank, headquartered in Orlando. He is the president of First Team Properties, which is also based out of Orlando and has investments in Orlando, Tallahassee and the Hilton Head area of South Carolina, where he also is a partner in Porsche, Jaguar, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Hyundai dealerships.
Mary Kaye Peacock grew up in Fort Lauderdale and was the first in her family to attend Florida State. She graduated in 1981 with a degree in interior design, which she put to use as a designer before devoting full time to her family. A member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, she said she still sees many of the same things on the FSU campus that caused her to first fall in love with it so many years ago.
I remember the first time I visited campus and I just thought it was absolutely beautiful, she said. With all the brick buildings and trees everywhere, it felt like an old established Southern university. And the Southern hospitality — I still can't get over that. Even now, with all of the calls we and our friends get from the administration welcoming our kids to campus and making sure they have everything in order to attend school. It's just such a special place.
Taylor Peacock, Warner and Mary Kaye's daughter, is entering her sophomore year at FSU this fall. Like her mother, she is a member of Pi Beta Phi. Landon Peacock, the Peacocks' son, will be a senior at Winter Park High this fall and plans to enroll at FSU in 2007. His arrival on campus will give his parents just one more reason to make their regular trips to campus.
Adam Corey, a director for Seminole Boosters, said it's no secret that the Peacocks are so closely attached to FSU.
To the Peacock family, Florida State isn't just a place they went to college, it is an integral part of their everyday life that they love and support, Corey said. They are a true Seminole family and we can not ask for better supporters than that.
Seeing FSU athletics continue to prosper is one of the big reasons why the Peacocks decided to make this donation at this time. Warner Peacock said he has been an active member of Seminole Boosters for 25 years. But it was in the last year that he said he began to learn more about the financial challenges facing the Boosters. He said he was surprised to find out that the Boosters fund the scholarship costs for FSU's student-athletes.
There are a lot of people that I talk to that don't know that scholarships are paid for by the Boosters, Peacock said. I guess most people think that it's paid by taxpayers in the state of Florida. Once I learned that they were paid for by the boosters and I got a feel for the cost and the magnitude of what needs to be raised to pay for scholarships ($140 million), that's when I decided to make this donation.
I'm telling you, there is not one person that I have talked to that has not been surprised to learn that boosters pay for scholarships.
Helping Seminole Boosters continue to fund scholarships for student-athletes is something Peacock said should be a top priority for everyone who loves FSU athletics. That's why he said he spreads the word about FSU's scholarship program every chance he gets &8212; and why he is considering donating more time to help the Boosters deliver that same message.
The most important thing is for all of us to search our hearts and our wallets for donations because there is a tremendous need right now, he said. We can't get behind. We've got to continue to stay out front if FSU is going to retain its current stature. That's going to take all of the boosters' support, not just the few that have given already.
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