Carol Martin "Bill" Gatton motions for a large crowd to sit while giving him a standing ovation during an event announcing his $20 million gift to the university for a new student center. Photo Supplied by the University of Kentucky, by Mark Cornelison.
Lexington, KY – The University of Kentucky announced its single largest gift in the school’s nearly 150-year history Thursday morning in the soon-to-be renovated and reconstructed student center.
Carol Martin “Bill” Gatton has pledged $20 million toward the $175 million revamping of the original 1938 student center and construction of a new facility on the site of two of the facility’s expansions in the ’60s and ’80s.
“You can’t get around on this campus right now without running into construction, and while that’s difficult to navigate, it’s wonderful to see because the investment being made in our university is going to lift it to the next level,” Governor Steve Beshear told a large crowd gathered in the student center’s Harris Ballroom.
The project, which was approved for self-financing by the Kentucky General Assembly earlier in the year, will see construction start in 2015 with completion expected in 2017.
“We’ll be sure to make this the facility in North America that when anyone wants to tour a community center building, they’ll come here to see how they should be built, designed and managed,” said Jeff Stebar, principal and higher education practice leader for Perkins + Will, an Atlanta-based architectural firm working with Lexington’s Omni Architects on the project.
UK President Dr. Eli Capilouto noted Gatton has given and pledged a total of $45 million to the university, which has been used to leverage nearly an additional $12 million in matching funds for Gatton’s alma mater.
In 1995, Gatton gave a then record-breaking gift to UK when he committed $14 million for the UK College of Business and Economics, which now bears his name.
Gatton, a native of Bremen, Ky., received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky College of Commerce in 1954 and after serving in the U.S. Army, earned an MBA from Penn’s Wharton School.
His business has focused on automotive dealerships — a business he got into as a salesman in Lexington during his final two years at UK — along with banking and real estate.
An affable Gatton spoke to the crowd about his time at the university and his other educational experiences, which he said he came to value later in life, leading him to give extensively to other schools in the region.
The Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science, located on the campus of Western Kentucky University, was named “America’s Number One Public High School” by Newsweek. He’s also made the lead gift to the Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy at East Tennessee State University.
Gatton also supports more than 2,300 public school teachers in eastern Tennessee and western Virginia to purchase educational supplies for their students.
“When I was 30, I thought I would retire at 40,” Gatton told the crowd. “When I got to be 40, I thought well, I’ll wait ‘til I’m 50. When I got to be 50, I decided I’d wait to be 60, and when I got to 60, I decided I never would retire.
“A lot of people ask me why an old fella like you would keep on working? I keep on working because I want to make more money so I can give it to the University of Kentucky,” he said.
Capilouto said it only took about half a day to convince Gatton of his lead gift to the project, but it took nearly a year to convince him of Thursday’s big rollout that acts as an early celebration of the university’s sesquicentennial, next year.
Looking ahead to the university’s 150th birthday, Beshear reminisced about the centennial in 1965 when he served as student body president and the centennial ball was held in the same ballroom as Wednesday’s event.
“This building is part of a network of history here at UK, but as befits a growing 21st century campus, this student center, just like the residence halls, needs to grow with the times,” he said.
As part of that, the 1963 expansion of the center, which opened during Beshear’s time on campus, and the 1982 annex, which was under construction while current UK Board of Trustee’s Chairman Britt Brockman served as student government president, will be razed to make way for the new 217,500-square-foot center. The entire center will total 330,000 square feet when joined by the existing 1938 space and a renovated Alumni Gym that will serve as a recreation center.
John Herbst, the executive director of UK’s student center, said the project has been overseen by a steering committee that plans to keep the style of the original portion of the student center, though updated and renovated, he said it will remain true to how it opened in 1938, with wrought iron welded by university students and existing signature fixtures refitted with modern lighting.
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