Formal dedication ceremonies were held Friday, Oct. 6 for the Ernest A. Koury, Sr. Business Center, the new home of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business that opened in August. Details...
Members of the Koury family, including Ernest Koury and his brother, Maurice, were joined by university trustees, friends, students, faculty and staff for the ceremony in the building’s LaRose Digital Theatre. In 2001, Maurice Koury made a major gift to name the facility in honor of his brother.
“Wow! What a building!” said John Burbridge, dean of the Love School. “Are you impressed? I certainly am. There is no other business facility in the world like the Ernest A. Koury, Sr. Business Center.”
Burbridge said student engagement is the primary focus of the facility, which opened this fall and features computer labs, research spaces and classrooms and breakout rooms designed to enhance faculty and student collaboration.
“With this building and its facilities, the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business will rise to new heights,” Burbridge said. He also thanked the Love School Board of Advisors for naming the first-floor atrium in his honor.
James B. Powell, chair of the board of trustees, recognized the Koury family for their contributions to university and community life. “It’s wonderful to see the entire Koury family here,” Powell said. “I want to thank all of you for what you do not only for Elon, but for the entire region and state.”
Art Cassill, professor of accounting, said the Koury Business Center will have a tremendous impact on business education at Elon. “Our faculty now have the opportunity to seek out new teaching models and ways to further challenge our students,” Cassill said, noting the center’s ample technology and spaces for students and faculty to interact. “I want to assure you that my colleagues and I will use this facility to its utmost abilities.”
Senior Kristin Smith, student representative to the Love School Board of Advisors, said the building has already become a hub of student activity on campus. “Students populate the building from morning through the evening. You will see the engagement of students and faculty here. The Koury Business Center is a thriving facility that we are proud to have on the Elon campus.”
In his dedicatory remarks, President Leo M. Lambert said the center will offer boundless opportunities for Elon students. “I believe in the power of human transformation that will take place in this building,” Lambert said. “Every one of us can feel good about the part we have played in providing an education for students like Kristin.”
Lambert also noted Ernest and Maurice Koury’s longtime and ongoing devotion to Elon. “It’s hard to imagine what this campus would be without the Kourys,” Lambert said. “Their quiet dedication and philanthropy to the greater community is at the core of these decent men.”
A portrait of Ernest Koury, painted by Michael Del Priore of Greenville, S.C., was unveiled by his grandchildren, and Father Gerry Waterman, Elon’s Catholic campus minister, offered a special blessing for the new building.
More than 1,000 undergraduate and graduate business students will study in the Koury Business Center, as well as many other students from a variety of academic majors. State-of-the-art technology is at the heart of the center, which offers wireless Internet service. The William Garrard Reed Finance Center has live data from Wall Street and other global financial markets on large plasma screens. The LaRose Digital Theatre has seating for 240 people and is fully wired for multimedia and worldwide videoconferencing technology. The LabCorp Suite for Executive Education provides classroom and study space for business leaders enrolled in Elon’s continuing education program. The James B. and Anne Ellington Powell Foyer can host receptions and other gatherings.
View a time-lapse video of the Koury Business Center construction…
A dedication ceremony was also held for the new Wallace L. Chandler Plaza and Fountain, at the front of the Koury Business Center. President Lambert said Chandler ’49, a longtime Elon trustee, “is a shining example of how one man can shape an institution.” Chandler’s grandsons, Tripp Bell and Currie Bell, both Elon students, pushed a button to officially start the dramatic three-level fountain.