Maurice Mayberry loved to travel.
As the first director of the Career Resource Center, he traveled to all 50 states to make connections and help UF students find jobs. After retiring in 1991, he began traveling beyond the U.S. borders with his wife, Gloria.
“They had a whole wall with pictures from over the years,” said Maurice Mayberry Jr., his son.
While he traveled to India, Austria, Finland, Iceland and China, South Africa would be his final trip.
Last Friday, on Feb. 19, the 92-year-old died of a heart condition at North Florida Regional Medical Center.
“Maurice Mayberry lived his life on his own terms,” his son said.
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Weather brought the Ocala, Florida, native back home.
After graduating from UF in 1951 with a degree in business administration, he joined the FBI as a special agent.
He spent one year in Indiana before being transferred to New York City, where new agents were required to spend five years, his son said. But Mayberry didn’t like the cold, cramped New York City living conditions.
He decided to go back to Gainesville, where he became the first director of the CRC, Mayberry Jr. said. He heard about the job after moving back and met with J. Hillis Miller, the UF president at the time, who offered him the job on the spot.
Ed Fleck, a former FBI agent, said he met Mayberry while recruiting UF students at one of his career fairs.
After talking and learning Mayberry was a former agent, the two quickly bonded, he said.
But it was clear, Fleck said, that Mayberry found his calling: helping UF students.
“The FBI was lucky to have Maurice, the University of Florida was lucky to have Maurice and the world was lucky to have Maurice,” he said.
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The framework for the Career Resource Center was there when Mayberry came to UF.
But he laid the foundation that CRC students have today, said Heather White, the current director of the CRC. Today, the center is one of the best in the nation.
He pushed to bring technology into the CRC when it was just being introduced, she said.
Mayberry would call her and ask about the CRC since she became director, she said.
“It’s really a testament to him and who he is,” she said. “It wasn’t just his job; it was who he was as a person.”
Without his work, the CRC wouldn’t be where it is today, she said.
“The center is where it is because of the people that came before us,” White said.
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After retiring from UF, Mayberry wanted to travel but needed some motivation, his son said.
To help, he got his father and Gloria free tickets to Japan and Hawaii. Gloria loved gardens and had always wanted to see Japan.
“They went totally on their own to a foreign country and they didn’t speak a word of Japanese,” he said.
When they came home, they decided to visit more countries.
“They were really, really hesitant and then they just kept going,” he said.
His final destination was Eliam Baptist Church in Melrose, Florida, where he was buried Wednesday surrounded by friends and family members.
