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The horticulture students also got practical, hands-on experience working with tropical plants and planning outdoor displays.

In addition to college-transfer curriculum, the college offered courses of particular value to South Floridians, such as ornamental horticulture. Prof. Albert Will (left) discusses the fishtail palm with his students in 1964. Will served as the ornamental horticulture program's director.

Nursing remains one of the most popular health sciences offered by the college. The first class of nurses began in 1963.

In her autobiography, Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser, author, screenwriter, and BCC alumna Rita Mae Brown wrote that the college was "a couple of buildings and a mess of sandspurs." Those sandspurs are evident along the sidewalk from the science lecture theater to the library. The young college, Brown added, "offered little by way of aesthetics, yet a lot by way of education."

Dr. Rex Kidd, director of the evening program, points out the library building to touring students as the Central Campus neared completion of its first buildings in 1963. Kidd, who died in 2002, was jokingly called the "Dean of Darkness" because a high percentage of students attended night classes during the early days of the college.

A college architect, Causeway Lumber president Gene Whiddon and Dr. Rushing discuss the president's office at the new Central Campus in Davie in November 1963. Whiddon, a supporter of the college from the start, provided paneling for the president's office. He later became the founding chairman of the Broward Community College Foundation.

Here, landscape workers plant coconut palms at the east entrance of the campus. When the campus opened in August 1963, it had 7 buildings spread out over 152-acres; it was built on land donated by the United States government. Other fixtures on Central Campus at the time of its opening were temporary trailers for the bookstore and horticulture program.

Fort Lauderdale realtor George E. Mayer (center) is welcomed to the board of trustees in 1969 by Chairman Robert E. Ferris (right) and Vice Chairman Judson Samuels. Judge Ferris graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law. Though his background was in law, his interests were in education. In addition to serving on the advisory committee, and later as first chairman of the board of trustees, Judge Ferris served as chairman of the Broward County Board of Public Instruction and as president of the South Florida Educational Center.

Lloyd Cassels served as a member of the Advisory Committee and as a trustee from 1961 to 1967. Cassels was active in North Broward civic affairs and was president of the Pompano Beach insurance firm of Bateman, Cassels, and Gordon.

John Payne served as a member of the Advisory Board and also as a member of the BCC District Board of Trustees from 1968 to 1987. An attorney, he is also one of two South Floridians who serves as a trustee to the Emil Buehler Trust, which has provided more than $1 million in support to the college.