Scholarship Celebrates Father's Memory

Frederick Ralph Sias, BSEE '28

Frederick Ralph Sias never saw a reason for someone else to do what he could do himself. He repaired his own cars, built his own 24-foot boat and fashioned his own archer's bow. As a boy, he constructed radio receivers, electric motors, a steam engine and an ice-making machine. During the Great Depression, he made furniture, including stools for his children that have been passed on to his grandchildren and great grandchildren and are still sturdy enough for the next generation of Siases.

Their father had a gift for recognizing problems and working out solutions in his head, son Fred Sias (BSEE '54, MSE '59) and daughter Peggy Sias Lantz explain.

"He could visualize things," Lantz says. "I'd tell people he could fix anything with chewing gum and a toothpick."

So, naturally, at UF — where he captained the swim team — Sias studied both chemistry and electrical engineering. After earning a degree in engineering in 1928, he eventually ended up at Pan American Airways, where he calibrated aircraft instruments, including those for aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart on her round-the-world flight. As America slipped into World War II, he joined General Electric and worked on secret military projects. Along the way, Sias earned numerous patents and, in 1952, received GE's award for Outstanding Invention of the Year. More patents followed, 18 in all, and in 1959 UF presented him with an honorary degree during the same ceremony when his son received a master's in electrical engineering.

Accomplished as he was, Sias, above all, was a scholar and gentleman.

Peggy Sias Lantz and Fred Sias in front of a display honoring their father's legacy in the New Engineering Building (NEB).

"Dad was integrity personified," Lantz says. "He lived a life of culture and courtesy and patience and honesty."

"He was also very mild-mannered," Sias Jr. adds. "I never heard a curse word from him his entire life."

To honor their father, when Sias passed in 1991 his family used an annuity to establish the F. Ralph Sias Scholarship for high-achieving juniors and seniors who, like him, have the intellectual curiosity to make their own marks in the engineering field. Fred Sias has since funded a charitable remainder trust with real estate to increase the scholarship's endowment.

"It's nice to know word is getting out that this man was here and that the university was part of his existence," Sias says of the scholarship.

"It's one way we can keep his memory alive and for young people to learn what you can do with a life," Lantz says. "I think of it as continuing his legacy."

Learn more about the ways real estate can help students achieve by contacting UF's Office of Estate & Gift Planning at giftplanning@uff.ufl.edu or 352-392-5512, toll free at 866-317-4143.