The University of Kentucky has announced a $20 million gift from alumnus and trustee Carol Martin "Bill" Gatton ('54) in support of a new student center.

The largest gift in the university's history will help fund construction of the $175 million, 330,000-square-foot center, which will house the UK Visitor Center and feature state-of-the-art student activity and study spaces, dining and retail operations, a bookstore, and a health, fitness, and recreation center. Scheduled to open in 2017, the facility will retain the original 1938 student center building, with its Frank H. Harris Grand Ballroom, and incorporate the 1924 Alumni Gymnasium.

With the gift, Gatton, who in 1995 gave a then-record $14 million in support of what is now the Gatton College of Business and Economics, has committed more than $45 million to the university, making him its single largest donor. Gatton, who bought his first piece of real estate at the age of 8 and sold it when he was 12, doubling his original investment, received a bachelor's degree from what was then called the UK College of Commerce and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and subsequently amassed a fortune in a business career that included car dealerships, banking, and real estate. In 1985, he founded the Bill Gatton Foundation and has since supported the Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science at Western Kentucky University and made the lead gift to the Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy at East Tennessee State University.

"I am a son of Kentucky, and I believe deeply in higher education," said Gatton. "I believe deeply in what this university — the University of Kentucky — means to my native state. By investing in the students at the University of Kentucky, I am investing in Kentucky's future."