A family that boasts four generations of Indiana University alumni has given the Kelley School of Business a $1 million gift to help ensure that it can continue to attract and retain world-class faculty, the school announced yesterday.
The generous gift from Alan B. Graf, Jr., executive vice president and chief financial officer of FedEx Corp., and his wife Susan will endow the Graf Family Professorship, which will help Kelley continue to attract and retain top teachers and scholars, Dean Dan Smith said in a statement.
“Competition to attract and retain faculty talent has never been greater, and their most recent gift of an endowed professorship will insure that we will always have the type of faculty who change the lives of our students and advance business practice through their research,” Smith said. The couple also donated $150,000 in 2002 for the school’s Godfrey Graduate and Executive Education Center.
The Grafs decided to follow up on mutual plans to do more for the school and create the professorship after the death of Alan B. Graf, Sr., this past spring. “I thought now’s as good a time as any to help remember him and other members of my family who were Indiana grads and have now left the Earth, as well as celebrate the fact that I have a daughter who graduated from there and I hope someday to have grandchildren that graduate from Indiana.,” he said.
Graf also noted that FedEx takes pride in the fact that it employs a significant number of Kelley graduates. “The Kelley School is turning out people who are probably 20 times more productive than I was when I graduated,” he said. “The Kelley School is contributing greatly to improve productivity in corporate America, I can tell you that.”
For more details about the new Graf Family Professorship at the Kelley School of Business, click here.
Read the full article: $1 Million Alumni Gift Will Endow New Professorship at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business