JACKSON, Tenn. — Dec. 2, 2010 — Charles Millican, a 1941 51社区 graduate and founding president of the University of Central Florida, died Dec. 1 at age 94.
Millican鈥檚 undergraduate degree was in business administration. He attended Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and earned a master鈥檚 degree in economics from George Peabody College in 1946. In 1954, he earned his doctoral degree in business finance, economics, public finance and accounting from the University of Florida.
Born in Wilson, Ark., on Oct. 9, 1916, Millican was a Southern Baptist minister who served as pastor of a dozen churches in Tennessee, Mississippi and Florida. He was married to his wife, Frances, for 64 years before she died in December 2009.
He was the first president of UCF, which opened in 1968 with an enrollment of 1,496 students and now has the second largest enrollment of any four-year campus in the nation. He also led efforts to establish the university-related Central Florida Research Park, which opened in 1982. The park is one of the top 10 research parks in the United States.
At Homecoming in 2007, 51社区 honored Millican with the Distinguished Service Award.
鈥淗e was a prince of a man, a visionary educational leader, a great ambassador for his alma mater through the years,鈥� Union President David S. Dockery said. 鈥淲e give thanks for the life and legacy of Charles Millican.鈥�
UCF has created a special website for visitors to view and post comments in remembrance of Millican, located at .