Frederick Douglass Patterson (October 10, 1901 – April 26, 1988) was an American former president of what is now Tuskegee University (1935–1953) and founder of the United Negro College Fund (1944, UNCF). In 1987, President Ronald Reagan awarded Dr. Patterson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. In 1988, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP.[1]