30th Anniversary History Book

The FOUNDING of

areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all places that are open to the public. Without the ADA, colleges were not required to accommodate learning disabilities. Some students who enrolled at Beacon had been beaten down by the education system and believed they were incapable of higher learning. Others had attended state or private colleges and universities that offered some assistance but not a comprehensive approach. Their self-esteem was at a low ebb. “They were told they should resign themselves to working at McDonald’s,” said Kathryn Jarvis, who taught at the college and served one year as Beacon’s interim president.

One of Beacon’s founders, Pat Horan Latham, said the college opened its doors during the fall of 1989 because of a stunning lack of alternatives. In short, she could find no institutions of higher education dedicated at that time to teaching students with special learning needs.

A prime example was her son John, who had difficulties with math, sequencing and organizational skills. “We thought he needed a school with a very strong learning disability program,” Latham said.

Patricia and Peter Latham with their son John , a Beacon graduate.

Sylvia Neill was well aware of the educational pitfalls for students like her son Blake who were not suited for traditional teaching methods. Blake enrolled at Beacon College in 1991. Neill and Kay Timmeny were elected to the Board of Trustees in March 1992, just two months before John D’Addario joined them on the panel.

Latham, her husband Peter, and Marsha Glines, the school’s first president — who formerly led the now- defunct DeSisto College in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla. — incorporated the college in May 1989. Beacon operated under a temporary license issued by the Florida State Board of Independent Colleges and Universities. Board officials said at the time that Beacon was the only college in the country they knew of offering a four-year degree for students with learning disabilities. This was a full year before Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act. The measure prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all

Sylvia Neill

Neill, a homemaker, summed up her vision for Beacon this way: “We wanted a gentler mode, a regular school environment … [with] knowledge of disabilities. You’ve got to have a lot of compassion, a lot of patience.”

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