FSU Foundation

FSU Honors Marching Chiefs with ‘Spectacular’ 3D Stained-Glass Window

Photo of Marching Chiefs window with drum major in foreground

A one-of-a-kind, three-dimensional stained-glass window honoring the Marching Chiefs was dedicated at a ceremony Friday, Sept. 20. (FSU Photo/Bil Lax)

By Dave Heller, Amy Farnum-Patronis | Published September 20, 2019

Florida State University’s Marching Chiefs are world-renowned for producing a grand “wall of sound,” and now the famed band is forever immortalized on the wall of FSU’s historic Heritage Museum.

A one-of-a-kind, three-dimensional stained-glass window honoring the Marching Chiefs was dedicated at a ceremony Friday, Sept. 20. Florence Ashby, an FSU alumna and member of the band in the 1950s, donated $25,000 to the Heritage Museum to fund the project.

“I am absolutely thrilled with the new window,” said Ashby, who performed with the band as an undergraduate and graduate student from 1953 to 1958. “I want it to be a tribute to the Marching Chiefs, which formally started in 1953 under the direction of Manley Whitcomb. The window is a tribute to all Marching Chiefs through the years.”