Elon trustee Dr. Bryan Latham and his wife Janet are among 12 recipients of the Southern Conference's 2011 Distinguished Service Award. Each of the SoCon member institutions select honorees for their contributions to the advancement of the schools and their athletics programs. The Lathams will be honored at a dinner in Charleston, S.C. on June 1.
The Lathams are members of the Numen Lumen Society, Elon’s premier donor society, which recognizes friends whose cumulative outright giving to the university has met or surpassed $1 million. The couple is also part of the Legacy Phoenix Society, which recognizes those whose lifetime giving to athletics through annual, endowment and/or capital supports exceeds $1 million, and inductees in the IMPACT Club, which provides scholarship support to the Phoenix Club.
Bryan and Janet Latham have made several major gifts to fund improvements at Walter C. Latham Park, home of the Phoenix baseball team, naming the facility in honor of Bryan’s late father, a 1934 Elon alumnus and standout baseball player. Recent gifts from the Lathams enabled Elon to replace the park’s entire playing surface. The outfield now features a new drainage system and the infield was replaced with FieldTurf. With the addition of this artificial surface, Phoenix baseball is able to resume practices and games much sooner following rain and wet conditions.