Arkansas State University  has announced a $10 million gift from alumnus Neil Griffin ('48) in support of its College of Business.

The largest individual gift in the university's 109-year history will endow scholarships, professorships, and funds for the operations of the university's business school, which will be renamed the Neil Griffin College of Business. Chairs to be endowed by the gift include the Neil Griffin Dean of Business, the Neil Griffin Professor of Entrepreneurship, and the H.B. Foster Bowdon Chair of Accounting, the latter named for Griffin's accounting instructor, who worked with him and dozens of other World War II veterans.

The gift also will create new Griffin Scholarships for business students, a Griffin Student Investment Fund for students in the university's wealth management programs, and the Gena Griffin International Travel Fund (named for Griffin's wife), and will establish a Griffin Excellence Fund that provides resources for the new Griffin Dean of Business to use at his/her discretion.

A native of Needham near Jonesboro, where the university is located, Griffin enrolled at what was then called Arkansas State College after his discharge from the Navy at the end of the war. Graduating with a degree in business administration, he began his career in professional accounting before moving on to banking and investment banking and serving as CEO of two publicly held corporations.

"Growing up in the Jonesboro area and attending Nettleton High School, I am well aware of the importance of Arkansas State to this region," said Griffin. "I have been blessed beyond any dream I could have had as a young man attending ASU, and I firmly believe in the need to give back to those who helped you along the way."