Walter R. Tarr created this fund in 1986, naming the scholarship, in part, after the department founder Fredrick Nims Rhines, who chaired Tarr's doctoral committee. Tarr received all three of his engineering degrees from UF, completing his Ph.D. in 1973. When asked about establishing the scholarship, Tarr said, "I got a great deal out of being here at the department and I wanted to put something back." Tarr hoped that the scholarship would encourage students to go into materials engineering. The F.N. Rhines and W.R. Tarr Scholarship Fund was the first scholarship to be given by a graduate of Florida's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Mr. Tarr and his wife, Patricia, are both employed at Honeywell International in Michiga