Nearly 10 years after his death, diehard Gator and lumber magnate Harold D. Haldeman, Jr. continues to make a difference for engineering students at the University of Florida.
A 1950 graduate of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering who first established a fellowship for ISE students in 2011, Haldeman died in 2016 at age 91. His wife, Marguerite Haldeman, then established a memorial gift in 2017 that remained in a trust until her death in 2023.
Between 2017 and now, that endowment has grown to about $12.85 million, and it is being released to further expand ISE Graduate Programs. Specifically, the funds will be used to offer fellowships to graduate students to cover their tuition, fees and stipends.
“We are extremely grateful for the gifts the Haldeman family has provided to UF ISE throughout the years. Their generosity, so far, has financially supported our students, facilitating their involvement in leading-edge research during their education. The endowment will not only continue to support our students’ professional development, but more importantly these funds will lead to a transformative phase of ISE’s graduate programs,” said Iris V. Rivero, Ph.D., the Paul and Heidi Brown Preeminent Chair and ISE chair.
Haldeman was born in Tampa and completed one year at UF before joining the U.S. Navy in 1944, where he served as an aviation electrician for two years until the end of World War II. He returned to UF and graduated with a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering.
After graduation, Haldeman made his mark in wholesale lumber and logistics. Within two years of graduation, he became general manager of Forest Products Corp. of Fort Lauderdale and, shortly thereafter, was named the president and the CEO of the company. He also served as the Florida manager for American Forest Products from California.
In 2011, he was initiated into UF ISE Hall of Fame in recognition of his distinguished record of leadership. The same year, he established the Harold D. Haldeman, Jr. Fellowship in 2011 to support graduate-student fellowships in ISE.