More than 80 donors who have included the university in their estate plans were honored at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and thanked for their commitment by Jeff Moore, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, and others.

Moore, who helped launch the UCF Celebrates the Arts festival four years ago, is also a member of the Millican Society. He and his wife established the Jeff and Mindy Moore Endowed Music Scholarship at UCF. “My legacy gift is scholarship, in an area about which I am extremely passionate – music, and specifically percussion – at a place in which I believe: UCF,” he said.

Remembering the festival’s goal – to extend the arts and make an impact on the community – Moore expressed his appreciation for society donors who similarly “understand the importance of playing an active role in improving lives.”

The Charles Millican Legacy Society is named in honor of UCF’s founding president. Two years ago, which would have been Millican’s 100th birthday year, a goal was set to add 100 new members by the end of the IGNITE fundraising campaign.

Planned gifts are an important part of IGNITE, a multi-year fundraising effort to raise $500 million for the university by mid-2019. They currently make up $62 million of the campaign’s $365 million attainment.

If you’d like to speak to someone about making a planned gift, please contact Kathleen Hagerty, at Kathleen.Hagerty@ucf.edu or call 407.882.1237.

Charles serves in his current role, as well as founding director, of GrayRobinson, where he continues to practice full time in the 270-plus lawyer firm.

He’s served as city solicitor for the City of Orlando, chairman of the Florida State Turnpike Authority, chairman of the Economic Development Commission of Mid-Florida, and chairman of the UCF Foundation (now trustee emeritus), as well as in many other leadership positions.

After winning the 1964 gubernatorial campaign, Florida Gov. Haydon Burns asked his campaign chair, Charles, what he wanted.

“Number one, I want a new university,” he said. And, Burns promised it to him, along with his other list of requests, which included an east-west expressway, a Board of Regents term for a dedicated campaign worker, and his suggested state road board member, among others. Charles didn’t ask for anything for himself.

Burns fulfilled every promise except one. After reading in a newspaper that he appointed someone else to the state road board, Charles called and questioned him. He answered: “Charles, getting a new university authorized, implemented and appropriated is not easy. I made a deal with the most powerful man in the legislature, Speaker of the House E.C. Rowell, who said he could get it done only on the condition that his best friend was appointed as a state road board member. I had to make a deal, and I’m sorry about that. That university was your first choice, and that’s what I had to do.”

Charles considered it an excellent trade-off.

Once Florida Technological şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą (now UCF) finally came to fruition, Charles was instrumental in the in the selection of former President Charles Millican, and current President John Hitt, and even introduced The Burnett Honors College’s namesake, Al Burnett, to the university.

As a prominent attorney and a major figure in the community, he has remained one of UCF’s strongest advocates.

The Champions Award has only been given out three other times, to the following recipients:

Read more stories about alumni at ucfalumni.com.

The Millican Society, named for UCF’s founding president, was established in 2000 and recognizes those individuals who make a planned gift commitment to benefit UCF and its students. “We appreciate the support of all of our donors, but Millican Society members’ support is especially meaningful because it so significantly impacts UCF’s future,” said Donald Hale, director of Gift Planning at the UCF Foundation.

President Hitt reflected on the society’s namesake, the late Dr. Charles Millican, with whom he shared a special friendship. He called Millican a “true pioneer whose creative vision, trailblazing spirit and clear resourcefulness inspired many.”

Hitt thanked donors for their commitment to to UCF’s long-term advancement and said that Millican would be happy to see so many people who believe in “the good work that he began and that we are doing, and will continue to do, at UCF.

“As members of the Millican Society, you are envisioning the future of UCF and planning for its success, just as Charlie did early on,” said Hitt . In addition to decades of visionary leadership, Millican and his wife, Frances, also left an enduring legacy to UCF in their own estate.

Society members were also treated to a talk and tour from MIRC director, Dr. Enrique Puig, who shared the history and goals of the magnificent state-of-the-art facility.

For more information on Planned Giving, visit:

“He had a way about him that made an impression on everyone he met. He recognized the importance of everyone, and he made you feel that way,” said Jeff Grasty, whose father served as a vice president under Millican and whose children came to know Millican and his wife, Frances, as grandparents.

“We should all be really proud to say that he was a part of our family, and we should plan on telling his story over and over again.”

Several hundred people gathered inside the Student Union on Monday to celebrate Millican’s fatherly love for UCF students and his dedication to what he helped transform into the nation’s second-largest university.

Millican, 94, died Dec. 1, at his Central Florida home. That day marked the 45th anniversary of his appointment as president of Florida Technological şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą, which would later become UCF. Millican had told friends earlier this year that he would like to spend Christmas with Frances, his wife of 64 years who died last December.

“He was a role model for us all, and the picture of a life well-lived,” said Roger Pynn, a UCF graduate and Distinguished Alumnus Award winner who is president of the Curley & Pynn public relations firm.

Pynn first met Millican when he was a student, and the two became close. Pynn said he was proud when Charles Millican asked a few months ago if he could introduce him as his “adopted son” at a doctor’s appointment.

Pynn also recalled a recent honor that Millican told him was one of the proudest moments of his life.

On Oct. 22, he stood before some of the university’s most distinguished graduates to accept the Champion’s Award from the Alumni Association at the annual Black and Gold gala. Although Millican had typed up his notes on an old electric typewriter, he delivered the 14-minute speech entirely from memory.

“As we drove home that evening, he told me it was his highest honor. He was so very proud of UCF graduates,” Pynn said.

That powerful speech was Millican’s last public presentation.

Millican was chosen by the Florida Legislature in 1965 to help plan and build what was then called Florida Technological şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą. He had a budget of $75,000, an office above a drugstore in downtown Orlando and marching orders to make it happen.

With Frances by his side, Millican worked magic, turning 1,227 acres of scrub and bushes in East Orlando into a university to train future aerospace engineers and computer programmers.

Because the university that finally opened to 1,948 students in 1968 offered 35 degree programs in five colleges — not just aerospace engineering and computer science as first envisioned — the name of the school was later changed to the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą.

Today, more than 56,000 students attend 12 colleges at UCF.

Charles Gray, who spoke on behalf of the community, said that Millican always had the university on his mind. He called Millican a visionary who designed the campus’ innovative concentric circle design to accommodate growth and selected the powerful Pegasus as the university’s emblem.

“Charlie and Frances enabled our community to achieve a dream of greatness,” Gray said. “We are on the exciting journey of that never-ending quest for even greater achievement. Thank you, Charlie.”

Millican’s contributions have led to economic development, education and partnership, helping to establish the region as one of the nation’s largest economies. He was also an ever-present public servant who taught in the College of Business and kept an office at the UCF Foundation after leaving the president’s office in 1978.

“He never left his beloved university,” said UCF President John C. Hitt. “Few universities have enjoyed the lifelong passion that he invested in UCF.”

Born in Wilson, Ark., on Oct. 9, 1916, Millican was a Southern Baptist minister. His strong faith guided him throughout his life and supported him as he embarked on the journey to establish UCF.

The ceremony included the reading of some of his favorite bible passages and the singing of his most beloved hymns. The Millicans’ pastor, Rev. Shaun King from College Park Baptist Church, recalled how Charles Millican recently gave him one of his “crown jewels,” a bible he received from the Bellevue Baptist Church when he was ordained as a minister in 1938.

It was also announced at the celebration that a pair of stars in the Pegasus Constellation have been named after UCF’s first couple. Certificates commemorating the stars were at the front of the Pegasus Ballroom, one on each side of Millican’s casket.

The ceremony concluded with the UCF Jazz Chamber Group playing “When the Saints Go Marching In” while President’s Leadership Council students served as honorary pallbearers leading the casket out of the ballroom.

“I think Charlie and Frances would have loved everything about this moment,” said Rick Walsh, a UCF graduate, chair of the Board of Trustees and a friend of the Millicans for 40 years.

Millican’s legacy will live on on the special , where viewers are invited to post comments in remembrance. Donations in memory of President Millican can be made to the .

Millican, who likened the challenge of building what would become the nation’s second-largest university to climbing Mt. Everest, died Dec. 1 at his Central Florida home. He was 94.

UCF has created the special for the viewing and posting of comments in remembrance. Donations in memory of President Millican can be made to the .

Considered the father of UCF, Millican was chosen by the Florida Legislature in 1965 to help plan and build what was then called Florida Technological şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą. He had a budget of $75,000, an office above a drugstore in downtown Orlando and marching orders to make it happen.

“When I thought about all that needed to be done to open by the fall of ’68, it scared the living daylights out of me,” Millican said in 1998.  “A half a minute later, I realized I had to take it step-by-step, day-by-day to put all the pieces together.”

“It was sort of like having the opportunity to climb Mt. Everest.”

UCF President John Hitt credited Millican for having the foresight to see how much UCF could achieve.

“Martha, I and the university have experienced a great loss,” Hitt said. “Few universities have enjoyed the kind of lifelong passion that Charlie Millican invested in UCF. From my earliest days as president, I have not only enjoyed his friendship but also appreciated his wise and generous counsel.”

“His constant support and sage advice have inspired us all as we strive to build the great university he envisioned.”

“Charlie Millican was a genuinely decent man with a big vision,” added Rick Walsh, chair of the UCF Board of Trustees. “My goodness — look what he started. He was an educator, minister, leader and my friend for nearly 40 years. We will miss him terribly but celebrate a life well lived.”

A special vision

Upon accepting the task of opening FTU, Millican worked magic, turning 1,227 acres of scrub and bushes in East Orlando into a university to train future aerospace engineers and computer programmers. He was the inspiration behind UCF’s bachelor’s degree in computer science, which was a first in the state at the time. It was visionary, just like the design of the campus that Millican championed.

Millican, a former dean of business at the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of South Florida, set up the campus as a series of concentric circles, a design that allows visitors to walk to any part of the core campus in no more than seven minutes and helps keep traffic flowing.

Because the university that finally opened to 1,948 students in 1968 offered 35 degree programs in five colleges — not just aerospace engineering and computer science as first envisioned — the name of the school was later changed to the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą.

Today, more than 56,000 students attend 12 colleges at UCF.

Those who knew Millican say he loved education and wanted to make sure he knew what students were going through. That’s why he created UCF’s tradition of holding several commencement ceremonies each year so all students could have their names read aloud and the opportunity to cross the stage.

“He handed me my degree and then he became not only a role model but a father to me,” said Roger Pynn, a UCF graduate and Distinguished Alumnus Award winner who is president of the Curley & Pynn public relations firm.

“Charles Millican had as great an impact on Central Florida as did Walt Disney. The university he founded has become the economic and intellectual engine of our region, and hundreds of thousands have achieved not only an education but great opportunity because of what he did. His was truly a life well-lived … true to his faith, loyal and loving as a husband and successful at every endeavor.”

Millican left the president’s office in 1978, returning to his first love of teaching. He taught in the College of Business until 1981. Until suffering a major heart attack in 2001, Millican was an active president emeritus and special assistant to the president of UCF.

Not one to let a heart attack stop him from pursuing his dreams, Millican devoted himself to helping to advance the work of philanthropy at UCF and kept an office at the UCF Foundation, where he advised on special projects.

Today, visitors approaching Millican Hall pass a statue of the founding president erected in 2009, paid for by alumni and other donors who named it “Reach for the Stars” to commemorate the motto Charles Millican selected for the university.

“Charlie dreamed, but he also worked — worked very hard — and he molded his dreams into reality,” Hitt said during the dedication ceremony for the statue. “We follow in the footsteps of a humble man of strong faith, a private man who has created a lasting legacy, and a public servant whose wisdom and counsel continue to benefit us all.”

Special exhibit

A special exhibit of photos and memorabilia celebrating President Millican will be displayed in the UCF Library through Jan. 31. The exhibit is near the entrance to the Library’s Special Collections and şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą Archives office on the fifth floor. Visit for the Library’s hours.