In 1963, Florida governor Farris Bryant signed a bill that created a new state university in Orange County. With Florida Technological University scheduled to open in the fall of 1968, there was much work to be done. Central Florida architect Frederick G. Owles was hired to lay out the vision of FTU’s first president Charles Millican and design the first buildings on campus.
At the time, Alyson Owles was a young child proudly wearing a hard hat when her father brought her to the construction site of the new university. Today, Alyson has proudly committed to a planned gift that will be directed toward an endowed fund bearing her father’s name. Fred Owles passed away in 2010.
The gift, with an estimated value of $1,000,000, will support scholarships in UCF’s Architecture program, which began in fall 2010 with the creation of the 2+2+2 program in partnership with Valencia State College and the University of Florida.
Photo by Jim Peters