A $500,000 gift from Maurice Jennings Sr. ’57 and his wife, Linda, and Maurice “Burney” Jennings Jr. ’87 and his wife, Dina '87, will establish an endowed professorship at the Elon University School of Law. The gift includes an estate gift from Burney Jennings, an Elon trustee.
The Jennings family has been a vital part of the Elon community for more than 50 years. Burney Jennings’ grandfather, Clyde W. Gordon Sr., graduated in 1926 and served as an Elon College trustee.
Trustee emeritus Maurice Jennings founded Biscuitville Inc., which has more than 50 locations in North Carolina and Virginia. As a trustee, he helped lead important campus initiatives, including fundraising campaigns for the Center for the Arts and the law school, to which he is a founding donor. He was awarded the Elon Medallion in 2006 for outstanding service to the university. He also has been a leader in civic organizations in Burlington and Greensboro, including the YMCA and Rotary.
Burney Jennings succeeded his father as president of Biscuitville in 1997. He became a trustee in 2000 and was an early advocate for the law school and its location in Greensboro. He and Dina are also founding donors to the law school. He chairs the board at Greensboro Day School and is active with the Greensboro Rotary, Greensboro Sports Council and the Wachovia Piedmont Triad Region Board of Advisors.
The Jennings family has generously supported Elon through the years, including making a gift to name Lake Mary Nell in honor of Burney Jennings’ sister.
“Our family has a long history with Elon, and we support Elon’s vision of building a world-class law school,” Burney Jennings says. “We think Elon Law can make a difference to our students, to the legal community and to Greensboro. I’ve been impressed that Elon Law holds the same values of dedication to students and experiential education that the undergraduate program does. We chose to support professorships because for Elon to be able to attract the best students, we need to continue to attract the best faculty.”
This generous gift will be counted toward the university’s upcoming fundraising campaign to build the endowment.