An initiative began earlier this year by the Class of 1981 will bring all Godby High School's yearbooks' content to public view for free.
On January 18, 2019, Phyllis Goodman Williamson forwarded me an email sent by Leon High School's principal to their students' parents, telling them that Leon had partnered with FSU Libraries to scan in all their yearbooks and other historical documents, which were then newly available for public viewing. Phyllis suggested that perhaps they could also do Godby's.
I made several phone calls, and spoke with personnel at Leon High School and then FSU Libraries Digital Archivist Krystal Thomas. I introduced myself and connection with Godby, and told her that although we don't have Faye Dunaway, we are a young school with only fifty graduating classes, and asked whether FSU Libraries would be interested in undertaking a scanning project of all our school's yearbooks.
A week later, Krystal confirmed that FSU Libraries would be happy to scan in all our yearbooks. In late February, we met with Godby Principal Desmond Cole, and received his approval.
Over the next two months, I determined which yearbooks were not already at Godby, and made arrangements with several alumni to temporarily provide us with those issues.
I have just returned from meeting with Mr. Cole, Ms. Thomas, and Ms. Jennifer Fain, and the scanning project has officially begun. Every page of every yearbook will be made available for free public viewing, well before our upcoming all-inclusive first 50-year reunion in early June 2020.
We will make an announcement in Summer when all images are available.
Godby Yearbook Project Team
L to R: Ms. Jennifer Fain, Principal Desmond Cole, Mitch Gans, Ms. Krystal Thomas
Phyllis Goodman Williamson (1981) for bringing Leon's project to our attention
FSU Libraries Digital Archivists Krystal Thomas and Jennifer Fain
July 17, 2019: All Godby yearbooks 1969-2018 are now available for free public viewing here.
