Floyd McCrory, BC ’77, and Keith Francis, BC ’76, graduated from Boston College almost half a century ago, but their enduring influence on the BC community remains as strong as ever.
In 2024, Boston College renamed the Options Through Education (OTE) program the McCrory-Francis Scholars Program, honoring the lives and legacies of these two prominent alumni. The summer enrichment program supports incoming freshmen who have faced significant economic or educational barriers.
Joy Moore, Vice President and Pine Manor Institute Executive Director, conceived of the name change for the program after researching McCrory’s and Francis’ contributions.
“The McCrory-Francis Scholars Program is named in memory of two prominent alumni of color,” Moore said. “The program name honors these two alumni and signals the important role they played in advancing the diversity of the student body at Boston College.”
According to Moore, OTE was launched in 1979 by the former Office of AHANA Student Programs and was placed under the umbrella of BC’s Pine Manor Institute for Student Success in 2020.
Under its new name, the program will continue to welcome annual cohorts of 20 to 25 accepted students for a seven-week summer session on campus. Afterward, participants receive academic support throughout their four years at BC.
“The McCrory-Francis Scholars Program is an appropriate next step in the long and evolving history of AHANA and first-generation student enrollment at Boston College,” Moore said.
Though now deceased, McCrory and Francis each played significant roles in the program’s long and evolving history, as well as in shaping the lives of those who knew them.
Floyd McCrory
Floyd McCrory bled maroon and gold, according to his daughter, Katina McCrory Hunter, BC ’04.
“BC meant the world to him,” McCrory Hunter said. “If anybody knew him, you knew about Boston College.”
Before he became an Eagle, McCrory was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, where he attended St. John’s College High School.
There, he developed the skills that propelled him to success later in life. As a standout local track and field athlete, his talent paved the way for him to attend BC., He also had a strong aptitude for math, leading to a long career as an accountant. As one of the area’s first Black Eagle Scouts, he acquired leadership skills that prepared him to serve those around him.
After graduating from St. John’s in 1973, McCrry chose to attend BC with a track and field scholarship. According to his sister, Alice McCrory-Miller, his faith was another impact factor in his decision.
“We were both Catholic, raised Catholic, and devout Catholic,” McCrory-Miller said. “So while throwing the religion in there, that may have been a part of it as well.”
McCrory’s athletic career at BC was cut short by an injury during his sophomore year. He quickly found new ways to engage with the University community, joining a fraternity and even becoming a cheerleader, according to McCrory-Miller.
But McCrory believed his most important contributions at BC did not center around himself—instead, they focused on supporting others.
In particular, he dedicated his time and efforts to helping other students in their search for career opportunities.
“He was very, very interested in career placement for students,” McCrory-Miller said. “He worked very closely with the Alumni Association and developed a career placement program at BC to reach out to the undergraduate students and try to get them placed in jobs through college so that they would have a networking kind of atmosphere and environment as they matriculated.”
McCrory also dedicated himself to the Black Talent program, which existed from 1968 to 1975. The program aimed to diversify the University by recruiting qualified Black students.
This interest in and care for others influenced McCrory in all stages and every aspect of his life, according to McCrory-Miller and McCrory Hunter.
McCrory-Miller recalled a specific childhood memory that she felt encapsulated her brother’s caring and protective nature: It was soon after Martin Luther King’s assassination in April 1968. Civil disturbances were taking place in cities across the United States.
“It was a lot of violence around that time,” McCrory-Miller said. “I specifically remember that he would not leave to walk home because we walked home from school. And I can still see that, because he waited for me, and it was like, I’m not going anywhere, talking about my sister, you know, and then we walked home together.”
McCrory graduated from BC in 1977 and began working as an accountant in Washington, D.C. before later taking a position in the D.C. Government Office of the Comptroller. He welcomed two children, McCrory Hunter and Jonathan McCrory. During each chapter of his life, his commitment to supporting others and building community only grew stronger.
“I think the biggest memory I have of him is just how he was like with other people, and how he was always so kind and friendly and trying to make people laugh,” McCrory Hunter said.
This lifestyle greatly influenced the people around him, and McCrory Hunter was no exception.
“I got into track and field because he always talked about track and field,” McCrory Hunter said. “Ended up going to BC probably because he always talked about BC. He got me networking and talking corporations in high school. I didn’t even realize how rare that was.”
No matter how many years passed since McCrory’s time on the Heights, his love for the University remained strong. He was a proud alum and a member of the Office of University Advancement and Alumni Association’s Board of Directors, according to Joy Moore.
His feeling of love for BC was reciprocal.
“The BC community was just amazing when he got sick,” said McCrory Hunter. “They all just came. And when he passed away, people came in from Boston. They all just came from so far to show support and love, so the BC community is just like no other in that aspect.”
Keith Francis
Keith Francis’ accomplishments on the track speak for themselves.
A seven-time All-American during his time at BC. A participant in international track and field meets against the Soviet Union and China. A competitor in the 1976 US Olympic Trials.
For Francis, however, these accomplishments paled in comparison to what mattered most to him: supporting others.
“Even though he was a world-class runner, that’s not what was important to him,” said Janet Costa Bates, a former BC Career Center associate director and longtime friend of Francis. “Students, kids, were far more important to him than running.”
Francis grew up in New Bedford, Mass., where he attended New Bedford High School and excelled as a track athlete and basketball player. His daughter, Karly Francis-Forrester, BC ’10, said his athletic talent landed him an offer at BC.
“I know he wanted to stay local for school, and he was really good at basketball and track, but he actually got recruited for BC for track,” Francis-Forrester said.
Francis majored in education at BC before obtaining a master’s degree from Boston University. He then moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked for about 30 years in government services.
“He was a probation officer because he always had a connection with youth,” Francis-Forrester said. “Then he became a DEA agent, and then he ended up going with the ATF before he retired and passed.”
Similar to McCrory, Francis was a community-builder focused on supporting the needs of others.
“He had a way of bringing people together to work together,” Costa Bates said. “And he saw the strength of that. He was very confident, but he was smart enough to know that he, by himself, could not accomplish everything, and he needed a team of people to accomplish things.”
Costa Bates recalled how Francis would approach challenges with a “How can we make this happen?” attitude rather than with a “Can we make this happen?” approach.
“Because then, instead of infusing doubt, you’re already getting the person on board with you and getting them to think about ways, getting their brain to start to strategize,” Costa Bates said. “How can we make this work? And I just felt like there was definitely some brilliance in approaching it that way, and it also takes confidence to approach it that way.”
Francis utilized this confidence and compassion to create Reconnect III, the first-ever AHANA BC reunion, with Kevin Malone. The first Reconnect reunion took place in July 2009 and has drawn hundreds of attendees each year.
“Keith, again, believed in bringing people together,” Costa Bates said. “And I think Reconnect was a way of that happening—bringing students of color, alumni of color, together to realize the strength that they all had together.”
Francis continued to enhance the college experience of AHANA students and support the BC community as a BC Trustee member for the 2010-11 term, according to Moore. He remained dedicated to his goal of making BC a more supportive environment for AHANA students until his death in 2011.
Francis-Forrester remembered her father as stern yet compassionate, with a care for others that deeply impacted those around him.
“He was always like, ‘If I’m remembered for anything, it was that I made a difference,’ and he truly did,” Francis-Forrester said. “He made sure that you excelled at whatever you needed. If he didn’t have it, he would put you in connection with the person that could assist you with whatever you needed.”
Impact and Legacy
McCrory and Francis had met while both were members of the track team and later reconnected in Washington, D.C., where they were both working after graduation.
While in Washington, the two started the D.C. Bus Rides program, which identified Black high school students in the D.C. area who were interested in attending a highly selective university. They then organized an annual bus trip where students had the opportunity to visit BC for themselves.
“They did this religiously, and they got paid nothing to do this,” McCrory-Miller said. “This was just something that they loved to do, and they volunteered to do, and they worked with the counselors at many different high schools here in the DMV area and with BC to coordinate this program.”
The program ran for 20 years. Every October, McCrory and Francis would take 40 high school students on a trip to BC where the students stayed on campus with student hosts and even attended a football game.
“My dad and Keith changed so many lives through their selfless act of organizing an annual trip to Boston College for a busload of kids,” McCrory Hunter said. What seemed like a simple trip actually took an entire year to coordinate and plan.”
Francis-Forrester expressed her excitement about the renaming of the OTE program to honor her father.
“Them renaming it in honor of him and Mr. Floyd is just unbelievable, and I’m glad that he was able to really allow students to experience it, and students are still able to experience it,” Francis-Forrester said.
McCrory-Miller also expressed how the renaming of the OTE program is an appropriate honor for her brother and the efforts he made to support BC and its AHANA community.
“I think right now he is probably happier than ever,” McCrory-Miller said. “And I mean he absolutely lived for that, and it was what he did.”
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