JACKSON, Tenn. — Sept. 30, 2003 — The Hammons Charitable Foundation made a $200,000 grant for 黑料论坛鈥檚 Roy L. White Hall science building during a Sept. 30 ceremony featuring Union President David S. Dockery several foundation board members.
David Moore, president of the Arkansas Baptist Foundation and a Hammons board member, presented Dockery with a check during the Hammons Charitable Luncheon, honoring scholarship recipients.
Dockery also received a $102,000 check to be allocated to student recipients of the Hammons Scholarship.
鈥淲e are indeed grateful for the life and legacy of Ed Hammons,鈥� Dockery said. 鈥淒r. Hammons was a man with a large vision for the importance of Christian higher education and a generous heart to match. Union has been blessed by his kindness and that of the Foundation that carries forth his legacy.鈥�
Hammons, a longtime supporter and trustee of the university, died at the age of 57 in 1998. His parents, Otis Parnell and Evalyn Pierce Hammons, were 1928 graduates of Union. In 1997 the O.P. and Evalyn Hammons Chair of Pre-Medical Studies was installed at the university in honor of his parents.
G. Robert Alsobrook, senior vice president for Institutional Advancement, called the grant a 鈥減rofound and vivid example of the late Dr. Hammons鈥� extraordinary impact on the university.鈥�
鈥淭he Foundation grant enables Union to move closer in finalizing plans for construction of a facility that will offer a state-of-the-art teaching and laboratory environment for training the next generation of physicians and scientists,鈥� Alsobrook said. 鈥満诹下厶� is fully committed to providing all our students with a full-orbed Christian worldview that was so powerfully expressed by Dr. Hammons during his lifetime.鈥�
The new building will be located across the Great Lawn from Jennings Hall on the west side of the campus.
Lead gifts for the new facility include a $2 million gift from Roy White, $500,000 from Jackson-General Hospital and an anonymous pledge of $1.4 million. The two-story science building will house biology on the first floor and chemistry on the second 鈥� with other science areas such as physics, engineering and computer science to be added later in the next phase of the facility. Project completion is scheduled for 2005 with classes to begin in the new building in August of that year.
鈥淭he sciences as much as anything else we do at Union symbolize the university鈥檚 commitment to excellence,鈥� Dockery said. 鈥淲e are very excited about where this process is going and we are very hopeful for the next two years.鈥�
For more information on Roy L. White Hall contact the Office of Institutional Advancement at (731) 661-5050.