The silent Knight

In 1971, an Orlando Sentinel photographer left a black-and-white photo of Charles Millican for the paper's front page without telling anyone who the other two people in the photo were.

Reporter Roger Pynn found Millican's number in the phone book and called him. Pynn tried to describe the picture over the phone, but Millican said it would be best to just bring the photo over.

When he knocked on the door, he was greeted by Frances Millican and the beautiful aroma of a bakery.

Later, Charles identified the people in the photo and Pynn stood up to leave.

Then Charles asked him if he takes milk, coffee or tea with his cookies. Frances had baked sugar cookies — coincidentally, one of Pynn's favorites — when she heard he was coming over.

"Out came Frances with a great big tray of cookies," Pynn said. "I didn't realize my life was going to change."

Pynn told Millican that he was planning on going back to school and finishing his degree, but he didn't know when. Millican gave him a phone number to call, and even though the application window had closed for Florida Technological University, Pynn found himself in school two weeks later.

It's been 30 years since that encounter, and now Pynn is a founding member of Curley and Pynn, a Maitland public relations firm, and one of dozens of people who credit the Millicans with their success.

"I have been impacted in ways I can't even describe by those two people," Pynn said. "There's no question in my mind that if that night hadn't happened, my life would be different. And it's not just because I went back to school. … I could've just gotten the photo ID and left. But because of Frances, my life changed."

Frances Millican, 82, died Dec. 28 from injuries resulting from a fall at her home. Charles Millican, the founder and first president of Florida Technological University — now the University of Central Florida — gave the eulogy at the service in the Pegasus Ballroom on campus.

Friends and those close to Charles said it was important for Frances' role with the university to be acknowledged and remembered.

"Frances has been the most supportive person I could have expected to find in a wife," Charles said in a 2008 interview with Observer Newspapers. "In the early years, we didn't have very much and I had to work a lot. There was never a time that she complained about how much I could not be with her or do things that other people do. Not one single time, and that is unbelievable."

Frances founded the UCF Women's Club, which is now a philanthropic organization that gives scholarships to non-traditional female students, and the Town & Gown group, whose members act as ambassadors for the university in the community.

Maggie LeClair, an assistant to the dean in the College of Sciences and close friend, said Frances was known as the Silent Knight for all the behind-the-scenes work she did.

LeClair recalled an outing with Frances a few years ago. When they dropped her off at home a little past 11 p.m., Charles Millican came sauntering out of the garage to greet them.

They asked him what he was still doing up.

"He said 'Well, I didn't want to go to bed until my little girl gets home,'" LeClair said. "She was 80 years old. That's the kind of relationship they had, and they walked back into the house together."

Guest Reporter Sonia Chopra contributed to this article.