UCF announced that its former president, John C. Hitt, has died. He was 82.
This is a breaking news story. Knight News will follow UCF’s plans to remember Hitt.
Below is how UCF described Hitt on its website:
As the University of Central Florida’s visionary leader for 26 years, John C. Hitt earned countless accolades for his commitment to educational access and the power of partnerships. During his tenure, UCF grew in academic quality, economic impact and national reputation as a new model for higher education that The Washington Post said “aims to demolish the popular belief that exclusivity is a virtue in higher education.”
Hitt, who became UCF’s fourth president in 1992 and retired in June 2018, died February 20, 2023 at the age of 82. He is survived by his wife and former UCF first lady Martha Hitt, their two children and grandchildren, and great-grandson Luca.
“John was an honorable man who built a great university, with an open hand, a generous spirit, and a perfect and simple dignity,” said Rick Walsh, a 1977 UCF graduate and former member of the UCF Board of Trustees.
During Hitt’s tenure – the longest for any State University System president since the 1940s – UCF opened a College of Medicine that has been a cornerstone of the medical city flourishing at Lake Nona and an on-campus football stadium that was an early catalyst for UCF’s upcoming entry to the Big 12 Conference. He also led UCF through approvals for the Downtown Orlando campus established in partnership with Valencia College and the opening of the new Rosen College of Hospitality Management campus in the heart of Orlando’s tourism corridor.
Hitt’s legacy also is found in the more than 260,000 degrees he awarded, as UCF’s enrollment tripled from 21,000 to more than 66,000 by his retirement. That growth meant thousands of additional graduates each year advancing to careers in many industries vital to the region’s and state’s economies – including engineering, optics and photonics, hospitality and nursing.
UCF’s growth also was accompanied by tremendous growth in the quality of the students enrolling. Under Hitt’s leadership, UCF’s graduation and retention rates soared, the SAT scores of fall freshmen rose from 1011 to 1316, and minority enrollment increased from 17 to 46 percent. In addition, at the end of his tenure, one in every four students was the first in their family to attend college.
UCF’s faculty members earned $148.8 million in research funding during Hitt’s final year as president, up more than fivefold from $28.4 million during his first year.
Hitt also joined the presidents of three area state colleges to form DirectConnect to UCF in 2006, which has earned national recognition as a pathway helping more students earn four-year college degrees. Through DirectConnect, graduates of now six state colleges are guaranteed admission to UCF after they earn their associate’s degrees, and the schools work closely together to align their curricula and make students’ transitions to UCF as smooth as possible.
“The path he has put UCF on will serve students and Florida for generations to come,” said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. “John fueled UCF’s impressive qualitative and quantitative growth by creating partnerships that many thought would fail. Simply stated, I believe Walt Disney and John Hitt have done more to transform Central Florida into a vibrant, dynamic place than any two people.”
Read more of UCF’s obituary here.
