A new building housing the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business at Elon will be named in honor of Ernest A. Koury, Sr. of Burlington, N.C., thanks to a gift from his brother, Maurice J. Koury, also of Burlington. Elon President Leo M. Lambert made the announcement during Spring Convocation for Honors on April 10.
“We are grateful to Maurice Koury for choosing to honor his brother with this impressive gift to Elon,” Lambert said. “Ernest and Maurice Koury both have a tremendous record of service to Elon, and this gift ensures that their legacy of leadership and stewardship will have a positive impact on Elon students for years to come.”
The new facility will fulfill a goal of Elon’s strategic plan, NewCentury@Elon, which guides Elon’s growth at the start of the 21st century. The plan calls for a new building to accommodate the growth of the Love School of Business, which enrolls 977 students in three undergraduate majors and the Masters of Business Administration program. The programs are currently housed in Long Building.
The campus location and design of the new building will be planned during the 2001-2002 academic year, and a fund-raising campaign will be launched to secure the necessary funds to complete the building. Construction has not yet been scheduled.
In 1980, Elon’s Field House was named in honor of John A. Koury, father of Ernest and Maurice. In 1994, in recognition of the family’s interest in and support for Elon, the board of trustees named the renovated and expanded campus athletic complex Koury Center, honoring Maurice and his wife, Ann, and Ernest and his wife, Marie, and their children Ernest Jr., Teena, Brad and Carolyn Koury Hill.
Both Ernest and Maurice Koury received honorary degrees from Elon during the Spring Convocation.
Ernest and Maurice Koury have been business partners in numerous interests, and they own several industrial and commercial properties in the area. Ernest Koury attended Elon before serving in the U.S. Air Force from 1942 to 1944. He founded a hosiery business, today known as Carolina Hosiery Mills, Inc., in the basement of his parents’ home. He served on the Elon College Board of Trustees from 1976 to 1996, when he was elected Trustee Emeritus. He received the Elon Medallion in 1997 in recognition of his loyal service to Elon.
Maurice Koury graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1948. He served the university as a trustee from 1981 to 1989 and was the recipient of its Distinguished Alumni Award in 1994. The natatorium at UNC and the auditorium in the Kenan-Flagler School of Business are named in his honor.