Ann Lee Brown, widow of Engineering School alumni Charles L. Brown, gave $10.5 million to the University Saturday.
Five million dollars will go to the Engineering School, $500,000 will endow an engineering scholarship and $5 million will be used to create an endowment for the Engineering library in Clark Hall. The library will be renamed the Charles L. Brown Science and Engineering Library in honor of the gift.
University Librarian Karin Wittenborg said she expects the gift will aid facilities upkeep and improve computer access at the Engineering library.
"It will set up an endowment to build collections, print and digital, to support technology today and in the future, and to make sure that the library is as beautiful in the future as it is today," Wittenborg said.
The use of the Engineering library, which recently underwent renovations, is up 70 percent, Wittenborg said.
"It is really important because the science and engineering programs are expanding," she said.
University President John T. Casteen, III, told a crowd at a Board of Visitor's full board meeting Saturday that the gift will help attract students to the University and maintain the increasingly popular Engineering library.
"It has become popular with students of all disciplines," Casteen said. "Students tell me it has the best fireplace at the University."
The other $5 million portion of the gift will help fund graduate research in the Engineering School and provide undergraduate engineering students with equipment and other resources, Electrical Engineering Department Chair Lloyd Harriot said.
"It will allow us to seed new research areas and get equipment," Harriot said.
Mr. Brown graduated from the University in 1943 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He went on to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II and then took a job with AT&T, retiring in 1986.
In 1980, Mr. Brown spoke at the Unversity's Final Exercises. During his lifetime, he gave the University more than $1.16 million. He died on Nov. 12, 2003.
Mrs. Brown said her husband was an unassuming man that spent a lot of his time at the University playing baseball and reading historical books.
"My husband loved the University dearly and he spent a great deal of time working for the University in one way or another," Mrs. Brown said.
James Aylor, acting dean of the Engineering School said he is proud to have Mr. Brown, who was a "giant in the field" of telecommunications, attached to the Engineering School. He said revenue generated from the endowment will attract engineering students to the University and ensure the Engineering School's success in the future.
"I think its going to be invaluable," Aylor said. "Its occasions like this that make you realize what an enormous impact the University has."
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