ALL IN THE FOGELMAN FAMILY \
Ben Watkins honored as an Outstanding Alumnus at the 2013 Alumni Day Luncheon
2013 Donavan Ellison showing school spirit on the University of Memphis campus
2014
The Spurlock Family gathered together at the FedExForum to cheer on their Memphis Tigers
2015
2015
2015
Sisters Renatha and Sylvia Ellison
Marvin Ellison, CEO of JCPenney
the
Ellison
“I got down to six hours a couple semesters, but I never dropped out. I was the classic student striving to do things on my own. I had a commitment to graduate. I knew that was important to my future.”
family
Marvin and Sharyn Ellison
Marvin Ellison, Renatha Ellison, Donavan Ellison, Sylvia Ellison, and Sharyn Stevens Ellison Marvin Ellison’s trip from the small, western Tennessee town of Brownsville to the University of Memphis campus as a ninth grader made a big impression on him. “I was a member of the student council, and we had a state meeting in1979,” he recalled. “It was a spring day, and the
flowers were blooming, students were outside, and it was so vibrant. I said to myself, ‘I’m going to college here.’ And when I graduated years later, that still resonated with me.” Ellison enrolled in1983 and worked part-time jobs in retailing to pay his $412 per semester tuition plus expenses while he studied political science and marketing, graduating from FCBE in1989. “I could not afford to go to school consistently full time,” said Ellison.
He remembers walking into an on-campus job placement office one year and asking the interviewer for the highest paying job available, which happened to be at Target for $4.35 an hour. It was a fortuitous placement. After graduation, he climbed the corporate ladder at Target for 15 years, and then he worked 12 years at Home Depot before becoming the CEO of JCPenney in Plano, Texas, in 2015. Ellison met his wife in the university library while she was also a student, and their son, Donavan, is currently a student at
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