LETTERS

Letter: An enduring vision of Annie Pfeiffer Chapel

Staff Writer
The Ledger
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright stands outside Florida Southern College's Annie Pfeiffer Chapel during a visit to the college circa 1941.

I am writing in response to Gary White's June 4 article, "FSC chapel honored even as aging takes toll."

It was the Great Depression and Vic Rankin, an Ohio boy, dreamed of attending college but had no money. After high school, he had no place to go. He worked as a gas jockey at a filling station. Laurence Alan accepted him as a voice student. But Mr. Alan had greater dreams for my dad. He took him to colleges that accepted poor students.

Then Mr. Alan remembered this little Methodist school on the shores of Lake Hollingsworth. Dad was accepted at Florida Southern College at the groundbreaking of Annie Pfeiffer Chapel.

FSC president Dr. Ludd Spivey and architect Frank Lloyd Wright shared the vision of building the most beautiful campus in the United States. But skilled labor was not affordable. And Dr. Spivey had students with no money to afford tuition. So, the deal was struck that students could pay their way through school as Mr. Wright’s “unskilled” labor.

My dad’s job was to mold the iconic "interlocking, textured blocks inset with squares of colored glass," designed by Mr. Wright. Every time I walk up the steps of the chapel, I can “see” my dad’s hands all over the blocks, as if a part of me is embedded in them.

Dad, a voice major and member of the college choir, met Katherine Killian. Soon, they were a “number.” After graduating, they married, and my dad became a Methodist pastor.

In 1961, FSC honored my father with an honorary doctorate for my parent’s missionary service. Little did this Ohio boy ever know or dream of being recognized by his beloved school and how the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel dramatically changed his life and all who came after him.

Lawrence Allen Rankin, Lakeland