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The Founder's Room

The Work of One Man Can Make a Difference – 1979 speech by Derek Bok

Text of speech by Derek C. Bok, President of Harvard University, and grandson of Edward Bok, builder of Lake Wales’ Singing Tower. The speech was delivered February 1, 1979, on …

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Americanization

Successward: A Few Prefatory Words (Introduction)

Successward is the 1895 book written by Edward Bok. The average young man is apt to think that success is not for him. To his mind it is a gift …

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Catching Up with Conservation: Lakela’s Mint Habitat Improvement Workday

In April, staff of the Rare Plant Conservation Program (RPCP) and St. Lucie County and nine volunteers from the local public participated in the final volunteer habitat improvement workday for …

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Americanization

Why I Believe in Poverty As The Richest Experience That Can Come To A Boy

Written by Edward Bok and published in 1915 by the Curtis Publishing Company I MAKE my living trying to edit the “Ladies’ Home Journal.” And because the public has been most generous …

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Americanization of Edward Bok

What I Owe to America: The Americanization of Edward Bok Chapter 39

Whatever shortcomings I may have found during my fifty-year period of Americanization; however America may have failed to help my transition from a foreigner into an American, I owe to her …

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Bellflower

Catching Up with Conservation: Brooksville Bellflower

In March, annual counting of all the Brooksville Bellflower, Campanula robinsiae, was performed at each population by the Rare Plant Conservation Program (RPCP) and project partners including the Florida Department …

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Americanization

The Purpose of the Mountain Lake Sanctuary

Rough draft found in the Nellie Lee Bok Archive. Handwritten by Edward Bok in October, 1928. The purpose of the Mountain Lake Sanctuary and the Singing Tower is four-fold. First: …

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Americanization of Edward Bok

Where America Fell Short With Me: The Amercanization of Edward Bok Chapter 38

When I came to the United States as a lad of six, the most needful lesson for me, as a boy, was the necessity for thrift. I had been taught in …

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singing-tower

The History of the Easter Sunrise Service

This year, Bok Tower Gardens will host its 97th Annual Easter Sunrise Service. Despite two years of virtual services, the service remains tje Gardens’ first and oldest tradition. The picture …

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