Georgia Debate Union

Augustus B. Turnbull, III

Augustus Bacon Turnbull, III, a native of Georgia, graduated from the University of Georgia in 1962, and earned his Ph.D. in Government (Public Affairs) at the University of Virginia in 1967. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he was president of the chapter at Florida State University.

Dr. Turnbull served Georgia Governor Carl E. Sanders as assistant press secretary from 1964 to 1967. From 1967 until 1971, he served on the Political Science Faculty at the University of Georgia and on its Institute of Government staff. While on leave from the University in 1969, he was a full-time consultant to the U.S. Civil Service Commission.

Dr. Turnbull joined the Florida State University faculty in 1971, and served as Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs, Acting Provost for the Social Science and Law School, Chairperson of the Department of Public Administration, and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs for Public Service. He became Vice President for Academic Affairs in 1981, and Provost in 1986. While on leave in 1974 and 1975, he was Education Committee Staff Director for the Florida House of Representatives. Shortly before his death in 1991, he resumed full-time service as Professor of Public Administration and Political Science.

A national leader in public administration, Dr. Turnbull was president of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (1983-84), and twice served on its National Executive Council, Standards Committee, and chaired its Peer Review (accrediting) Committee. He served as president of Pi Alpha Alpha, the National Public Administration Honor Society, and on the National Executive Council of the American Society for Public Administration. In October, 1991, he received the Pugliese Award of the Southeastern Regional Conference for Public Administration, Inc. for having made the most dedicated contribution to public administration in the South.

As Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, he initiated a strategic planning and budgeting system and provided leadership in the development of numerous programs, including a vastly expanded outreach and public service program through the Center for Professional Development and Public Service, the Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, the interdisciplinary materials science program which led to the establishment of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, an interdisciplinary structural biology program, the Engineering College, and the new School of Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts. He also worked to improve corporate understanding and support of university objectives, the reorganization of faculty=led intensive study of academics and athletics. His numerous contributions were recognized by the University when he was awarded the Westcott Medal on November 13, 1991.

Dr. Turnbull held office and/or membership in the Board of Directors of the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, the Tallahassee Symphony, the Suwannee River Council of Boy Scouts of America, the LeMoyne Art Foundation, Friends of the Leon County Public Library, and the Tallahassee-Krasnodar (USSR) Sister City Organization.

Augustus B. Turnbull, III, the son of Isabel Walker Turnbull and the late Augustus B. Turnbull, Jr., was born March 7, 1940, in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up in Toccoa, Georgia. He died on November 17, 1991, survived by his wife, Marjorie Reitz Turnbull, Commissioner At-Large, Leon County, Florida.