OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 When Lucian Minor graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1937, the student body included some 3,000 students \u2013 all on the Oxford campus \u2013 and residence halls were spartan, compared to modern accommodations.<\/p>\n
Minor, who earned an accounting degree at Ole Miss, has returned to campus frequently over the years, helping mentor many UM accountancy students and hiring dozens of them at his Memphis accounting firm. He and his wife, Mary, came back Thursday (April 25) to watch as one of the university\u2019s three newest residence halls was named for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I graduated here, the campus has changed tremendously \u2013 for the better,\u201d Minor said. \u201cThis is a beautiful building, and it’s a great honor to have it named for us.<\/p>\n
Minor Hall is one of three residence halls \u2013 the others being Ridge North and Ridge South \u2013 that opened in August on the former site of Miller Hall. With space for 250 students, Minor Hall provides many of the amenities requested by students, including private bathrooms, microwaves and refrigerators in each room, study rooms, community kitchens and lounges with TVs on each floor.<\/p>\n
Nearly 100 people, including a handful of Minor\u2019s former employees and several UM accountancy students, gathered outside on the sunny afternoon for a brief ceremony honoring the couple.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have been generous supporters of the university, the Patterson School in particular, for a number of years,\u201d Chancellor Dan Jones said. \u201cIt is appropriate that the Minor name will be linked to this campus in perpetuity through this building.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minors recently provided more than $5 million in gift annuities to the university\u2019s Patterson School of Accountancy. Their support over three decades has included a trust to establish the Lucian S. Minor Endowment for the accountancy school in 1996 and a trust of $1 million in 2007, as well as major contributions to other initiatives across the Oxford campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cLucian and Mary Minor have lived lives guided by generosity,\u201d Provost Morris Stocks said. \u201cTheir generosity will likely change the future of many faculty and students at the University of Mississippi and will positively affect the quality of future accounting professionals who will be educated in the Patterson School of Accountancy. For that, we are very grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Naming one of the new residence halls in honor of the Minors is appropriate, given Lucian Minor\u2019s dedication to helping students, Stocks said.<\/p>\n
\u201cResidence halls are not what they used to be,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re more than just a place to live and sleep; they\u2019re an extension of the academic classroom now.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout half the students living in this residence hall are members of LLCs, which stand for living-learning communities, where they can get to know other students and faculty in their academic areas. Those communities help them enhance their educational activities as well as build relationships and teams. And that\u2019s the way that Mr. Minor led Ernst & Young when he was managing partner there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recruited by General Mills Inc. in Minneapolis upon his graduation from Ole Miss, Minor joined the company’s internal audit staff, where he was employed until his service in the U.S. Navy in 1942. He was discharged as a lieutenant commander in 1946 and soon resigned from General Mills to open his own accounting firm in Memphis.<\/p>\n
By 1967, his operation had grown large enough to interest the Big Eight firms. He merged with Ernst & Ernst (now Ernst & Young) and became partner in charge of the Memphis office, a position he held until his retirement in 1978. Minor was inducted into the Ole Miss Alumni Association’s Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Patterson School of Accountancy’s Hall of Fame in 1997.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"