STORIES
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FRIENDS SAY HE'LL NEVER GIVE UP
By Amy Welch
In the late 1950s, when blacks were required to ride in the back of the bus, Steve Uhlfelder, a 12-year-old white boy, found his backbone. He refused to watch old black ladies stand on the buses rolling through West Palm Beach, where he grew up, when there were plenty of seats left in the "white" section. So he sat in the "black" section, to show people he didn't agree with segregation.
Sometimes the other whites sneered at him or asked him to move, but the boy held his seat firm.
Uhlfelder, now 52, hasn't changed his style much when it comes to things he strongly believes in or disagrees with. He is a lawyer with a prominent firm and has been a member of the state's Board of Regents, which governs public higher education, since 1994. His way of dealing with university problems has drawn several critics, but it has also drawn a lot of respect.
"He looks like a big old tough guy, but he wears his heart on his sleeve," said Welcom Watson, a fellow regent. "He's not afraid to call you a bastard to your face, but he also takes the same criticism well."
He is a bleeding heart when it comes to college students and children. His job on the board is focused on what he believes will make the university system better - whether that's by evaluating tenured faculty members, raising tuition and financial aid, or requiring students to do community service.
Uhlfelder was raised by parents who did more than was required of them. He would go with his mother to parent-teacher organization meetings, and his father was an active city commissioner in West Palm Beach and a member of many service clubs.
Uhlfelder's passion for doing what he thinks is right was fueled by his family's history. His father escaped Nazi Germany in 1937, and many of his relatives perished in concentration camps or by the hands of German soldiers during World War II.
"Millions died in Nazi Germany because no one went against the grain," Uhlfelder said. "Going with what's comfortable may be okay in the short run, but in the long run it causes more problems."
When Uhlfelder was student body president of the University of Florida in the late '60s, he stood up to the administration on several occasions, especially on the issue of racial inequality on campus.
But, as Watson says, Uhlfelder's not all fight. His soft side is equally noticeable when it comes to kids and helping others. He and his wife Mifflin, a well-known Tallahassee artist, have been tutoring at Tallahassee schools for more than 10 years. Uhlfelder has helped start scholarship programs and raise money for institutions such as FSU's Holocaust Institute for Educators, where teachers learn how to teach about the Holocaust.
"Steve is one of the best motivated people I have ever known," said Sandy D'Alemberte, president of FSU, who has worked with Uhlfelder for many years. "He cares about kids and is deeply committed to education."
When he believes in a program or an issue strongly, he will work hard to make it happen. He compromises, but sometimes he comes back and approaches the board on the same issue again and again.
"He'll never give up," Watson said. "He'll be one on a vote, but he never gives up. He's a working regent. ... He has so much compassion for everyone, especially those who don't have a lot of money.
Recently Uhlfelder has been fired up over requiring students to do community service.
"As we become more disconnected through technology," Uhlfelder said, "(Community service) will become even more important. ... We give (students) the tools, but they often leave (the universities) without learning who they are."