University of Central Florida College of Health and Public Affairs Records

The School of Public Administration has its roots in the Department of Public Service Administration that was established within the College of Social Sciences in 1975. Dr. Wendell Lawther departed from teaching at Old Dominion University in Virginia and joined the Department of Public Service Administration in 1984. During his thirty year stay at UCF he was present during the growth and many changes that occurred. In 1990 the Department of Public Service Administration left the College of Social Sciences and became the Department of Public Administration within the newly founded College of Health and Professional Studies. The following year in 1991, the college would be known as the College of Health and Public Affairs. In 1994, Dr. Lawther served as interim chair after former chair Robert Denhardt's departure and later as chair until 1997. In 1998 he was instrumental in building the Doctoral Program of Public Affairs, serving as the chair of the committee that created the program. Dr. Lawther would later say that this was his proudest achievement. In 2011 the Department of Public Administration became the School of Public Administration which is dedicated to providing education to students who desire careers in nonprofit management, urban and regional planning, research administration, emergency management, and public administration.

Dr. Wendell Lawther was born in Pennsylvania to Mr. and Mrs. Lawther who were both teachers. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Public Administration at the University of Delaware and received his doctorate at the University of Indiana. It was in his junior year of college that Dr. Lawther decided that he wanted to teach after reading an essay by Woodrow Wilson titled, The Study of Administration. He was inspired by a passage that said: "Our duty is, to supply the best possible life to a federal organization, to systems within systems; to make town, city, county, state, and federal governments live with a like strength and an equally assured healthfulness, keeping each unquestionably its own master and yet making all interdependent and co-operative combining independence with mutual helpfulness. The task is great and important enough to attract the best minds."