Search

The Harry A. Cronk collection, 1957-1990 primarily documents Cronk's career with Pan American World Airways, or Pan Am, and NASA, supporting national defense and manned spaceflight during the height of the space race between 1950 and 1970. Materials consist of certificates, ephemera, photographs, publications, reports, and a hard hat. This collection is useful to historical research into Harry Cronk, Pan Am, and NASA projects. Harry Alden Cronk was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1922 and died in Merritt Island, Florida in 2004. He enlisted in the United States Army during World War II, earned a mechanical engineering degree from Georgia Tech, and served in the Army Corps of Engineers. In 1950, Cronk married Mary Jane Brewer and worked for Bendix in a defense contractor position. In 1957, he began to work for Armco steel before moving to Merritt Island, Florida, accepting a job with Pan American World Airways in 1960. Cronk became Chief Staff Engineer in 1962. Pan Am, and Cronk, directly supported the Apollo 11 mission that achieved the moon landing on July 20th, 1969. He also contributed to the Skylab missions and the first international manned space mission in 1975. He retired from Johnson Controls in 1990. He later passed away in 2004.

The Marilyn Crotty papers, 1972-2018 (bulk 1976-1978), chiefly consist of news clippings, correspondence, reports, organizational records, and publications collected by Marilyn Crotty during her involvement with the Florida Governor's Commission on the Status of Women (COSOW). This collection documents the commission's organizational history and its efforts toward the betterment of women in the Central Florida area. The collection offers a glimpse into second-wave feminist activism in Florida and strategies in the 1970s to promote the feminist movement and gain support. Marilyn Ettinger Crotty is a Florida educator, activist, and civic leader whose career included work in public service, local government, and higher education. She served on the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, the Florida Environmental Efficiency Study Commission, and the Florida Governor's Commission on the Status of Women (COSOW). In 1982, she established Valencia Community College's Center for Community Leadership, a state-funded institute that provided training programs for local government employees and elected officials. In 1990, the University of Central Florida hired her to direct the John Scott Dailey Institute of Government, a position she held until her retirement in 2018.

The Scott H. Simpkinson collection, 1943-1989 contains the materials Simpkinson collected during his tenure as an engineer for NASA. Materials are largely produced by NASA, and include information about the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Viking missions, as well as the Space Shuttle program. The collection also includes materials produced by outside engineering firms and Simpkinson's personal effects. These materials consist of reports, publications, photographs, and objects. This collection provides insight into the early days of NASA, key missions, and the career of Scott Simpkinson. Scott H. Simpkinson was born on August 24, 1919, in Piqua, Ohio. Simpkinson graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1943 and was subsequently employed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), then the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), as an engineer from the 1950s until his retirement in the early 1980s. Simpkinson worked on the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Viking missions, as well as the Space Shuttle. Scott Simpkinson died on August 8, 1996.

The Rosen School of Hospitality Management began as a program within the College of Business Administration in 1983 and later became its own school in 2000, called the Rosen School of Hospitality Management. In 2004, it received a new building and later changed to Rosen College of Hospitality Management. This collection of records contains brochures, viewbooks, correspondence and visual materials such as photographs, slides and a scrapbook.