Wilford Maurice “Bucket” Milikin, a 1958 graduate, and his wife, Katherine, have spent the greater part of every autumn at Florida football games for the past 40 years, loving Gainesville and the Gators whether winning or losing. All four children–Tony, Pat, Drew, and Kaffie–grew up on Gator football and continue to support it and the university.

After graduating from UF, Bucket migrated south to Cocoa Beach, Fla., where he became directly involved in the emerging and exciting space program. Bucket first worked on Project SCORE, the world’s first communication satellite that beamed President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s holiday wishes worldwide. From that project forward, he devoted his life to the development of the space program as it evolved through the Atlas-Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and shuttle missions and credited his education at UF in electrical engineering to his success. Before he died, he requested that a scholarship, funded by his family, friends and some corporate contributions, be created to benefit other aspiring engineering student