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Florida Southern alumnus
receives achievement citation
Joseph Capitano, Sr., Tampa businessman, helped restore Ybor City

LAKELAND, Fla. (Feb. 28, 2002) - Florida Southern College honors alumnus Joseph Capitano, Sr., a 1960 graduate, at its Founders Day convocation March 15 at 10:10 a.m. in Branscomb Auditorium. Capitano will receive the Alumni Achievement Citation, awarded each year to FSC alumni for excellence in a profession or endeavor.

Capitano is president and secretary of Radiant Oil Company in Tampa, founded by his parents in 1941. He has been an active force in the Tampa community, instrumental in the restoration of Ybor City, now a National Historic Landmark. He received the 2001 Tony Pizzo Award for his fundraising efforts and restoration of several historic buildings in Ybor City. The Pizzo Award, named for one of Tampa's most noted historians, honors those working in preservation, education, community service, and historic research. Capitano helped raise the funds needed to build a youth center for the Boys and Girls Clubs in Tampa's inner city neighborhood. He also contributes his time as secretary/treasurer of the Florida chapter of Phoenix House, the nation's largest non-profit organization devoted to the treatment and prevention of substance abuse.

About Florida Southern College
Florida Southern is a four-year, private, co-educational liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The college offers more than 40 undergraduate majors and a master of business administration degree accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Located in Lakeland, Fla., the college is home to the largest, single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture in the world.

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