Michael Drews met Frederick Rosner at Nesaquake Junior High School on Long Island in 1974. Rosner, in turn, met Robert Thieke in gym class.
Drews became a highly sought-after in vitro fertilization specialist, Rosner became a successful bankruptcy attorney and Thieke became a much-loved educator and respected civil engineer at the University of Florida. The friendship forged in their formative years remained a constant, a source of support and continuity in their lives.
And it also was the wellspring of the Robert Thieke Endowed Professorship, established in 2025 under the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment — or ESSIE — to honor Thieke upon his retirement after 35 years at UF.
While the endowment is a testament to Thieke’s tenure as a professor and mentor, securing the endowment is a nod to lifelong friendships.
As the friends began moving toward careers after high school, they vowed to maintain their deep connection. In get-togethers simply referred to as “Convergences” (the capital C is mandatory), they made time to visit and travel together.
“We all eventually gravitated to different places,” Drews said. “I went from Ithaca to New York City. Fred landed in Manhattan. He went to law school at Brooklyn Law, so he was kind of in the neighborhood. Bob was out in Berkeley, but we still managed to organize trips together. Eventually we’d find our way back to Long Island from time to time, but obviously when we were becoming adults, it became more of a challenge.”
The Convergences continue to this day. In fact, during the interview for this story, there was already some bickering about plans for the next one.
In 2025, Thieke was preparing to retire from his position as professor emeritus in the UF’s Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering, or CCE. He learned that ESSIE was interested in creating an endowed professorship in his name to honor his career. However, funding was uncertain.
For years, Thieke’s friends had been impressed with his stories of concrete canoes and student connections. And when Drews learned of the potential endowed professorship, it all just clicked.
“I’m thinking, OK, this is an opportunity to honor one of my best friends,” Drews remembered. “This could allow his legacy to live on in perpetuity. With his commitment to education, all the lives he’s changed, here was a vehicle to allow that to continue.”
Annie Muscato, Ph.D., then-director of development for ESSIE, was instrumental in bringing the fund to fruition. She knows the group well, having spent quite some time with them, and knows there’s more to the story than Drews is letting on. “It somehow started in a hot tub, actually.”
That’s all she will say.
Drews was well positioned to fund the endowment, thanks to his successful practice in New York City having recently been bought by a private equity firm. Thus, he created the Robert Thieke Endowed Professorship in 2025.
The endowment’s announcement was timed to coincide with Thieke’s retirement celebration, and his friends naturally planned to attend. But they needed to be a bit sneaky.
“A surprise is the only way you can approach him, otherwise he’ll make an excuse for us not to come,” remarked Drews.
For Muscato, the secrecy was definitely a challenge.
“I couldn’t tell Bob what was going on,” she remembered. “I had to be very vague, like, ‘Bob, can you just come to dinner? There will people there, and could you bring your wife?’”
“Apparently,” Thieke noted, “I’m fairly easy to surprise, because I’m kind of clueless.”
Make no mistake, the recent endowment is an expression of the love and admiration the friends have for Thieke and his dedication to education. They heard the stories.
“I’m thinking, OK, this is an opportunity to honor one of my best friends.”
– Michael Drews, M.D.
During his time at CCE, Thieke held a number of leadership roles, serving as the undergraduate coordinator (2007–2024) and CCE department head (2011–2024). Notably, he also served as faculty advisor for the successful Concrete Canoe student design team. With Thieke’s support, the team qualified for nationals 10 years in a row, including winning the national title in 2015 and setting the course for subsequent championships in 2019, 2021, 2024 and 2025.
“With concrete canoe, what you’re actually doing is shepherding this group of really exceptional, motivated kids through this very competitive process,” Thieke said. “I ended up pulling a bunch of my teaching assistants for my hydrodynamics class from the concrete canoe team list because these are people who are unbelievably responsible, really motivated and dedicated. You’re gonna get good work out of them, because they’re all self-starters.”
Thieke is deeply aware of the personal ties at the heart of the professorship.
“I’m so thankful to all of the people who donated to the professorship, as there were a great many, but it couldn’t have happened without Mike,” Thieke acknowledged. “It’s actually a bit staggering — how do you possibly thank someone for donating so much to create an amazing legacy for someone else? I am truly humbled and eternally grateful.”