The football field in Rhodes stadium will be named McKinnon Field in honor of trustee Bob McKinnon '62 and his wife, Ray.
Elon President Leo M. Lambert announced the field naming during a luncheon prior to Elon’s Sept. 25 football game with North Carolina A&T State University. The McKinnons have made a $1 million commitment to the fund-raising campaign for Rhodes Stadium, a $13 million, 8,250-seat bowl-shaped stadium planned for the north end of campus. At the luncheon, the latest project drawings were presented by representatives of Ellerbe Becket, the project architects.
McKinnon is campaign chairman for the $40 million Campaign for the Elon Vision, the fund drive to support the college’s ambitious strategic plan for meeting the challenges of the 21st century. He has been a member of the college’s board of trustees for three years.
McKinnon is president and CEO of CV Industries, the Hickory-based parent company of Century Furniture Industries, Valdese Weavers and Expressions Custom Furniture, a chain of more than 50 retail stores.
The board of trustees, which meets in October, will consider authorizing construction to begin in early spring. The goal is to have the stadium completed for the fall 2001 football season. To date, about $10.7 million has been committed to the project.
Other donors to the stadium also were honored at the luncheon, including Dusty and Peggy Rhodes of Gibsonville who have donated $2 million to the stadium, which will bear their name.
An archway at the stadium’s entrance will be named in honor of Nick Theos, a 1956 graduate, of Charleston, S.C., thanks to a $750,000 pledge from his classmate, Furman Moseley and his wife, Susan, of Seattle, Wash.
The press box will be named for the late C. Carl Woods Jr. of Durham, N.C., a 1951 graduate who made an estate gift to his alma mater.
The 1st State Bank Foundation of Burlington, N.C., pledged $250,000 , and the scoreboard will bear the bank’s name.