UWF receives $125,000 gift to create scholarship endowment benefitting electrical and computer engineering students

The University of West Florida has created the Electrical Engineering Juergen and Helen Ihns Scholars Endowment through a $125,000 gift from Helen Ihns. The endowment, established in honor of Helen and her late husband Juergen Ihns, will provide four annual need-based scholarships to UWF electrical and computer engineering students.

"We are so grateful to the Ihns family for their generosity and continuous support of UWF and its students," said Dr. Mohamed Khabou, dean of the Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering. "This generous gift is the latest of many made by the Ihns family in support of various programs at UWF. It is befitting the wonderful legacy of Mr. Juergen Ihns as an engineer and an active member of the community."

Born in Brazil, Juergen Ihns came to the United States during World War II for flight training in Texas, and returned to Brazil to instruct on PT-19's, T-6's and B-25's as an officer in the Brazilian Air Force. After the war, he earned a degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University and worked for General Electric as an engineer and as a purchasing agent at the University of Florida. When UWF was formed, Ihns was hired as the first Director of Purchasing, becoming one of the first five employees of UWF in 1965. He and his wife, Helen, were extremely involved in the Pensacola community.

The scholarship recipients will be selected by the chair of the Dr. Muhammad Harunur Rashid Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in consultation with the dean of the Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering.

For more information about giving to UWF, visit uwf.edu/give. For more information about the UWF Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering, visit uwf.edu/hmcse.