The Martin Dyckman Leroy Collins Research Collection

Collection — Container: 15 Boxes

Identifier: MSS 2008-011

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains research materials used by Martin Dyckman for his 2006 book about former Governor Leroy Collins titled Floridian of His Century. Research materials include speeches from Leroy Collins before he became governor; an interview transcript with Premier Khrushchev during Collins' trip to the Soviet Union; newspaper columns written by Collins for the St. Peterburg Times and transcripts and audio recordings of interviews conducted by Dyckman.

Dates

Created: 1909-2005
Other: Majority of material found in 1950-1970
Other: Date acquired: 00/00/2005

Conditions Governing Access

Users may access this collection at the Claude Pepper Library.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Biographical or Historical Information

Martin Dyckman covered local, state and national government and politics and wrote editorials and opinion columns during a 46-year career with the St. Petersburg Times, where he retired in 2006 as associate editor.

From 1969 to 1976 he was chief of the newspaper's state capital bureau at Tallahassee, where his investigative journalism contributed prominently to the resignations of two Supreme Court justices and to the constitutional amendment providing for merit selection and retention of Florida appellate judges. The Florida Bar Foundation recognized his articles on prison reform and judicial reform with its 1984 Medal of Honor award, making him the first journalist so honored.

The newspaper's 1971 series, "Criminal Justice in Florida: Reform or Revenge?," of which he was a principal planner and author, received the Public Service Award of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association, an American Bar Association Silver Gavel, and first-place awards from the Florida Bar and Florida Society of Newspaper Editors.

He is the author of two books, Floridian of His Century: The Courage of Governor LeRoy Collins, and A Most Disorderly Court: Scandal and Reform in the Florida Judiciary, both published by the University Press of Florida. Floridian of His Century won the Charlton Tebeau award of the Florida Historical Society and a bronze medal in the Florida Book Awards.

Dyckman's recent speeches include appearnaces before the Sixth Circuit Bench-Bar Conference in November 2008 and the Inns of Court at Miami in January 2009.

He graduated from Florida State University with a BA in American Studies, served in the U.S. Army Reserve, and in his only professional foray outside of the print media was an investigative reporter and editorial writer for WJXT in Jacksonville in 1968-69. After returning to the Times, he also served as a national correspondent in Washington from 1976 to 1979 and as chief editorial writer in St. Petersburg. His last posting, in 2000, was to write editorial and columns from the capital at Tallahassee.

As of 2009, he and his wife, Dr. Ivy J. Dyckman, live in Waynesville, North Carolina.