{"id":6919,"date":"2018-06-29T20:38:05","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T20:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/leadership\/president\/?page_id=6919"},"modified":"2023-09-25T14:12:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T14:12:59","slug":"millican","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/leadership\/president\/millican\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles N. Millican"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t\t
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The vision and passion of UCF\u2019s founding president transformed 1,227 acres of scrub and bushes into what has become\u00a0one of the largest universities in the nation.<\/p>\n

Charles N. Millican was born on October 9, 1916 in Wilson, Arkansas.<\/p>\n

He earned bachelor\u2019s degrees in business and religion from Union University in Tennessee, a master\u2019s degree in economics from George Peabody College in Tennessee, and a Ph.D. in business finance and economics from the University of Florida.<\/p>\n

Millican served as pastor of Olive Branch Baptist Church in Mississippi before serving as a coordinator for the 44th College Training Detachment of the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. After the war, he returned to school, joining the commerce department at Union University. He later joined the faculty at UF, where he was subsequently appointed the assistant dean of the Warrington College of Business Administration in 1956, followed by dean of the School of Business Administration at Hardin Simmons University in Texas, and then dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of South Florida in 1959.<\/p>\n

In 1965, Millican was chosen by the Florida Legislature to help plan and build what was then called Florida Technological University. He had a budget of $75,000, an office above a drugstore in downtown Orlando and marching orders to make it happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I thought about all that needed to be done to open by the fall of \u201968, it scared the living daylights out of me,\u201d Millican said in 1998. \u201cA half a minute later, I realized I had to take it step-by-step, day-by-day to put all the pieces together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was sort of like having the opportunity to climb Mt. Everest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considered the father of UCF, he is credited with selecting the university\u2019s motto (\u201cReach for the Stars), its Pegasus logo<\/a>, the twin tenets (\u201cAccent on the individual\u201d and \u201cAccent on excellence\u201d), and the campus\u2019 concentric circle layout, with a focus on making the campus walkable for students, staff and faculty members.<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t

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A Foundation of Excellence<\/h2>\n

Since 1968, UCF has grown from a small, technological school to one of the nation\u2019s largest universities, constantly gaining in quality. Our legacy for excellence was built by leaders who believed in the power of education to transform lives, communities and our entire state.<\/small><\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\"dale\n

Dale Whittaker<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\"John\n
John C. Hitt<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\"Steven\n
Steven Altman<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\"Trevor\n
Trevor Colbourn<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\"Charles\n
Charles N. Millican<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-fullscreen.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-6919","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCharles Millican | UCF's Founding President<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The vision & passion of UCF\u2019s founding president transformed 1,227 acres of scrub & bushes into what has become\u00a0one of the largest universities in the nation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/leadership\/president\/millican\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Charles Millican | UCF's Founding President\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The vision & passion of UCF\u2019s founding president transformed 1,227 acres of scrub & bushes into what has become\u00a0one of the largest universities in the nation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/leadership\/president\/millican\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Office of the President\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-25T14:12:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/leadership\/president\/millican\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/leadership\/president\/millican\/\",\"name\":\"Charles Millican | UCF's Founding President\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/leadership\/president\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-29T20:38:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-25T14:12:59+00:00\",\"description\":\"The vision & passion of UCF\u2019s founding president transformed 1,227 acres of scrub & bushes into what has become\u00a0one of the largest universities in the nation.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/leadership\/president\/millican\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/leadership\/president\/millican\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/leadership\/president\/millican\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/leadership\/president\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Charles N. 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