Update
Douglas G. and Edna Truitt Noiles ’44
the need to create an environment where these students could first learn what the word ‘scholar’ meant and then know they could become one.” The couple are among Elon’s most generous benefactors. In 2003, they made a $1 million gift to endow the Vera Richardson Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life. Their previous support of the Elon Academy includes a $220,000 gift to fund the first year of the program. The couple are members of the Numen Lumen Society, the university’s premier cumulative giving society, which recognizes donors who have given $1 million or more to Elon. Deborah Long, professor of education and Elon Academy director, says ongoing private support for the program is critical to its future success. “We are making a long-term commitment to young people and families of Alamance County,” Long says. “Endowment gifts allow us to do that by funding the Elon Academy in perpetuity.”
robertsons fund alumni gym renovation A major gift by Elon trustee Jeanne Robertson and her husband, Jerry, will provide lead funding for renovating Alumni Gym in the Koury Center. The project will upgrade Elon’s home for basketball and volleyball, convocations and other large campus events. The renovation includes new seating; lighting, sound and video boards; offices for coaches and staff; locker rooms; and a south entrance and outdoor plaza. The gym’s lower-level bleacher seating will be replaced with chair seats, with additional sections added on the north end 8
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Construction is scheduled to begin in May and be completed over the next two summers. Use of Alumni Gym during the academic year will not be affected. The plan to create a new south entrance will return the gym to its original design. When the building opened in 1950, the main entrance was on the south end of the gym. The south entrance was closed when Alumni Gym underwent a major renovation in 1994 as part of the Koury Center’s construction. Jerry and Jeanne Robertson The Robertsons have made generous gifts to honor their close friends, former athletics of the gym to form a horseshoe bowl. At the director Alan White and his wife, Norma. In south end of the gym, an upper-level “nest” recognition of the Robertsons’ gifts, Elon’s seating area will be added behind the bas- Belk Track Complex includes Dr. Alan and ketball goal. Norma White Field and the North Athletics In recognition of the Robertsons’ gift, the Complex includes Alan J. White Bell Tower. basketball floor in the gym will be named The Robertsons’ son, Bailey “Beaver” Robertson Court. Bowline, is a 1989 Elon graduate who played “We want to help maintain Alumni Gym basketball during his college years. The couas a first-class venue for campus events and ple are members of Elon’s Palladian Society. a great facility for Phoenix sports,” Jeanne Robertson says. “We’re happy to have the opportunity to support this exciting project and lathams enhance to advance Elon’s athletic and cultural pro- baseball park grams that are hosted in Alumni Gym.” Trustee Dr. Bryan Latham and his wife, Janet, “Jeanne and Jerry Robertson are among the of Miami, have made a $250,000 gift commost loyal and generous supporters of Elon mitment to fund improvements to Walter C. athletics,” says Dave Blank, director of ath- Latham Park. The couple have made several letics. “Their gift demonstrates a remarkable major gifts to Latham Park, including one commitment to the Phoenix and will make to name the facility in honor of Latham’s faAlumni Gym more attractive, comfortable ther, a 1934 Elon alumnus and standout athand functional for the many uses of this key lete who died in 2000. The couple are among campus facility.” Elon’s most generous donors to athletics. With Blank says the renovation is a key step in their recent gift, they have made $1 million in preparing for future construction of a large gifts and pledges to Latham Park. convocation center, which is included in The Bryan Latham says he’s grateful to Elon for Elon Commitment, the university’s 10-year helping his father realize his dream to earn a strategic plan. Fundraising for the renovation college degree. Walter Latham was the first will continue and will provide the balance of person in his family to attend college. He the financing. starred on Elon’s football, basketball and
Architectural rendering of Alumni Gym renovation