The “Pace” Paradox
- Published by Infinite Wisdom
- Mar 21, 2024
- 3 min read
Lucia Dillersberger
So I was reading the weekly Kugelman Honors Newsletter and I saw that Dr. Evans won the PACE Leader in Education Award. (Quick note: Congratulations Dr. Evans!!) Something about that post was far too familiar. “Pace.” I've seen that word a lot this year… Pace Hall, Pace Library, Pace Presidential Scholarship, the town of Pace…there are so many Paces!
So, what IS Pace? Or, who is Pace? Is it all the same Pace? Are all the Paces connected? There are so many questions. I’m not originally from the Pensacola area and I have not really heard anything about the origins of this name. I thought it was time to do a bit of a deep dive into this subject.
Let's start with the library. John C. Pace Library. At least it gives us a full name to start with. The library website itself has a bit of information on its namesake. John C. Pace was a prominent figure in Pensacola in the 1960s. He helped found both the Florida Pulp and Paper Company and the Alabama Pulp and Paper Company. He was also chairman of the Board of the Bank of West Florida, director of the First Bank & Trust Company, and vice-president of the Pace-Holland Company. Basically, Mr. Pace was a VERY involved man. Aside from all this, he served on quite a few state local government committees including the Florida Industrial Commission, Santa Rosa Island Authority board, and State Board of Control. But what about UWF? Where does it fall in all of this? Well, here is what the library website has to say about it:
“Mr. Pace played a leading role in the establishment of The University of West Florida, and in The University of West Florida Foundation, Inc. In 1965, he received the Pensacola Kiwanis Club Civic Award for his contributions toward the creation and development of the University.”
So this explains why so many things relating to UWF are named after Pace. There is plenty of evidence around campus but students who don’t go searching for the information might never know. Now to address the town of Pace, which often gets confused among students with Pace Hall. When simply saying that you are going to “Pace,” it may not be obvious if you mean the town or the residence hall. Turns out, the town of Pace is named for a completely different person: James G. Pace.
James G. Pace reportedly owned a lot of property in the area in the early 1900s. The small town that developed there was named after him. You may be thinking that this answer is a lot simpler than the case of UWF’s Pace. However, are these two Pace cases connected at all? Both were businessmen originating in Georgia and making their most notable contributions in and near Pensacola, Florida. Pace Boulevard and Pace Temple CME Episcopal Church are located in Pensacola but named for James G. Pace, not John C. Pace. After a bit of digging, we realized that there is actually a rather strong connection between the two Paces. John C. Pace is the son of James G. Pace.
The father-son connection between these two figures explains a lot. It explains why the two men lived such similar lives within the same area. It also explains the line of wealth that ultimately ended up helping create the University of West Florida. Now that we know that there was a whole line of Paces, we can quickly go over a few more of the cases in which this name is used:
Pace High School is located in the town of Pace and therefore gets its name from the same place as the town.
Pace Hall is named for John C. Pace Jr, who is the son of John C. Pace and grandson of James G. Pace.
UWF has a variety of scholarships and awards named for John C. Pace Jr.
It is unclear exactly which Pace the Pace Presidential Scholarship was named for.
So what about Dr. Evan’s award? The PACE awards are unique to Pensacola, but in this case, PACE is actually an acronym. What Dr, Evans got was a Pensacola Area Commitment to Excellence (PACE) Award. Any connection to the Paces mentioned before is not explicitly mentioned in the award description. There could be a deeper connection here, but it just isn’t clear. Maybe they started with the acronym and made the longer name in reference to it. Maybe it's a coincidence. Who knows?
In the end, I feel much more enlightened about Pace, the name that seems to be everywhere around here. The connections are a lot more clear now. So, now that this mystery is cleared up, I have a new question. Maybe we will cover it in a future post. What is Kugelman?
References (if needed):
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