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The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences lost a friend and champion when DAVID R. COLBURN, former director of the Bob Graham Center, a beloved professor of history and Provost Emeritus, passed away in September.

“David was a colleague, a mentor and a friend to many at the university, and he was a tireless advocate for the college since joining the faculty of the Department of History in 1972,” said Dean David Richardson.

“I knew David Colburn as one of the great administrative leaders of the university who contributed to its rise in reputation as a top public institution. His scholarship and leadership reflected his commitment to honoring the lessons of the past while we build a better future.”

Colburn, 76, died due to complications from an extended illness. He served UF for nearly 50 years in nearly every administrative role: He was the university’s provost and senior vice president from 1999–2005; vice provost and dean of the International Center from 1997–1999; and chair of the Department of History from 1981–1989.

“For nearly a decade, David Colburn was the inspiration and an admired director for the Bob Graham Center for Public Service,” former Governor Bob Graham said.

“It was my honor to work with him and experience his scholarship and values,” added Graham. “He was a loving husband to Marion and devoted to his three children and grandchildren. Contributing five decades of service to the University of Florida and to our state, his wisdom, grace and friendship, will be sorely missed. His achievements and contributions to the University and to the Bob Graham Center for Public Service are a source of strength for the future.”

“The University of Florida mourns the loss of one of its greatest leaders,” President Kent Fuchs said. “Dr. Colburn served our campus, our students and our state with steady, selfless dedication for nearly a half a century. He will be greatly missed.”

Colburn was born September 29, 1942, in Providence, Rhode Island — and he never lost his Ocean State accent despite leaving at age 24. He earned his AB and MA in history from Providence College, where he was a member of the Army ROTC. He was called to Vietnam in 1966, and served a year in the Signal Corps, promoted to captain in that time.

When he returned to the states, he entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received his PhD in 1971. After teaching at UNC and East Carolina University, Colburn came to UF in 1972, where his teaching and research specialized on topics like the American presidency, politics of the American South and civil rights.

Even amid writing or editing 14 books and some 25 book chapters, he was focused most keenly on his students. He was a master at inspiring, motivating and guiding them. He sent a generation of public leaders across Florida and the nation in a range of professions, and they often called to seek his counsel and returned to visit him. Colburn was named teacher of the year on three occasions.

He was also a trusted counselor to elected officials including the late Florida Governor Reubin O’Donovan Askew and Governor Graham. Colburn helped bring to light many of the uncovered racial stories of Florida, including in his book Racial Change and Community Crisis: St. Augustine, Florida, 1877-1980. He served as one of the authors of Florida’s Rosewood Report in 1993, part of an inquiry into the 1923 destruction of the town of Rosewood that helped push Florida to approve unprecedented reparations for racial violence. 

His most recent books were From Yellow Dog Democrats to Red State Republicans: Florida and Its Politics Since 1940 (2007) and Florida’s Megatrends with Lance deHaven-Smith (2010). Other books included African-American Mayors: Race, Politics, and the American City (2001) with Jeffrey S. Adler; Government in the Sunshine State: Florida Since Statehood (1999) with deHaven-Smith; and The African American Heritage of Florida (1994) with Jane Landers, which won the Rembert W. Patrick Book Prize for best book on Florida history and a special commendation from the Association of State and Local History in 1996.

He was also founder and director of the Askew Institute on Politics and Society at UF, which presented public programs to civic leaders and citizens on critical issues confronting Florida and the nation. In 2013, the Institute merged into the Graham Center, where its mission lives on through the Askew Scholarship program.

Colburn was a true public scholar and often spoke and wrote on diversity as America and Florida’s exceptional strength. “The nation and Florida have been greatly enriched by the nation’s multiplicity of people, a resultant diverse and dynamic economy,” he wrote in an essay earlier this year, “and an advancement, not a diminishment, of the nation’s liberties.”

Colburn wrote more than 200 essays on state, national and international politics. He appeared on many news programs to discuss civil rights; race relations; and state, national and international politics. He was a regular contributor to the Orlando Sentinel for 20 years and more recently wrote for the Tampa Bay Times, The Miami Herald, The Florida Times-Union, The Gainesville Sun and the Ocala Star-Banner.

He was a champion of the humanities who had served as past chair of the Florida Humanities Council and the U.S. Federation of State Humanities Councils. He was set to receive the Florida Humanities Lifetime Achievement Award from the Board of the Florida Humanities Council the week he passed away, only the second time in the Council’s history the award has been given. The other recipient was UF’s Michael Gannon.

“His commitment to humanities education at the state and national level was unprecedented,” said Steve Seibert, executive director of the Florida Humanities Council. “No one has done more to support the humanities, in deed and in cause. We will miss his wisdom, friendship, and leadership; we loved David and will remember him always.”

Colburn was past president of the Florida Historical Society, served as a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, a professional organization of more than 8,000 members, and as a Road Scholar for the Florida Humanities Council, speaking internationally, nationally and statewide on history and politics. He served as a Fellow in the U.S. Senate from 1993 to 1997, where he worked on national and international issues.

Colburn is survived by his loving wife of 53 years, Marion Faircloth Colburn; his children Margaret Cauthon (Ray), David Colburn (Michelle), Katherine Fulmer (Jamie); his grandchildren Claire Cauthon, Caroline Cauthon, James Fulmer, Ali Colburn, Ben Fulmer, Kate Colburn, and Maclean Fulmer; and his brother and sister Paul Colburn and Lynn Dyson (Tom).

The family suggests that expressions of sympathy may be made in the form of donations to the Graham Center’s David Colburn Student Advancement Fund, c/o the UF Foundation, P.O. Box 14425, Gainesville, 32604-2425, or to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 100 NE 1st Street, Gainesville 32601.