years in the making How a gift changed the course of business education at Elon BY KEREN RIVAS ’04
Faculty, staff and friends of the Martha and Spencer “That was one of those moments that foreshadowed the university emerging from what was then Elon College, a Love School of Business gathered Feb. 5 at the major professional school being established,” Lambert said. Alamance Country Club to celebrate a milestone. Said Linda Thompson Weavil, professor emerita of business administration, “It really did mark the beginning of As they stood with glasses raised, they paid our evolution into a bigger, stronger, more cohesive program.” homage to those whose generosity and vision made the school a reality, and celebrated the program’s A natural partnership accomplishments of the past quarter-century. Considering the important role Martha and Spencer Love’s
In his toast, President Leo M. Lambert called on the Love School “to continue to be a shining beacon of excellence” for Elon.
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company, Burlington Industries, played in developing the regional economy, it made sense to name the business school in their honor. A pioneer in the textile industry, Spencer Love built Burlington Industries from a single mill into the world’s largest textile manufacturer, overseeing plants by the time of his death in . The Loves’ son, Charles, has served as chairman of the Love Foundation’s board of directors since 1980. He said Elon continues to reflect several values at the core of his father’s business philosophy. “We were impressed with Elon’s potential to play a unique role in business education by providing excellent training to young people,” Love said. He added that one foundation board member who felt strongly about Elon’s value was the late Edward Zane, a family friend who served as legal counsel and confidant to Spencer Love. “He was a great believer in Elon,” Charles Love said of Zane. “That certainly influenced me a great deal.” Zane envisioned a business school at Elon that would prepare a very different kind of leader from those produced by Harvard or the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. This kind of leader was not necessarily a future chief executive officer of a large corporation, but rather the leader of those small and medium-sized companies that are crucial for the everyday functioning of local economies.
“The first years of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business have passed in a blur,” said President Leo M. Lambert during the evening’s toast. “Its formative years have realized many goals, and most important of all, the impressive student accomplishments in attracting national acclaim and recognition.” At the genesis of these accomplishments is the Martha and Spencer Love Foundation, which in December 1985 made a $1 million gift in support of the business program. For the foundation, the gift honored the values Martha and Spencer Love held dear and solidified the family’s ties to Alamance County and Burlington, N.C., the region where Spencer Love chose to relocate his textile operations in 1923. Building on existing foundations For the college, the gift was remarkable not only because of its size – it was the largest single endowment gift Elon While the Love Foundation’s gift provided the means to had ever received – but also because it enabled the college establish a business school, it did not signal the start of to establish its first school and bolster its first graduate business studies at Elon. From its beginning in , Elon program, the master of business administration. offered business-oriented classes such as bookkeeping,