Myatts' Gift Offers Broad Support for Business College
April 22, 2008
KNOXVILLE -- After earning his bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1964, Ray Myatt Jr. went into business with his father.
They operated a motor oil distributorship, and Myatt went on to own several motels.
Through it all, Myatt said, the business education he received at UT "has just been a great benefit to me."
Myatt and his wife, Joan, a Peabody College alumna who taught school for a short time and raised three daughters while assisting with the family business, have given a $1 million-plus deferred gift to the Campaign for Tennessee.
The campaign is a $1 billion fundraising effort that was officially launched on April 17 at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The gift supports the College of Business Administration's Ray and Joan Myatt Endowment at the Knoxville campus. The endowment's earnings will be used by the college to provide broad-based support for purposes relating to the mission, operation and function of the college.
Ray Myatt, who was a member of Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity and Sigma Phi Epsilon social fraternity when he was at UT, said he and his wife continue to visit campus often and are avid football and basketball fans. The Myatts live in Dickson, Tenn.
The Campaign for Tennessee -- the most ambitious effort in the university’s 214-year history -- places UT among the ranks of the nation’s largest public and private institutions that have sought this level of private support.
The campaign, which launched its silent phase in 2005, will secure private gifts that, in turn, will contribute substantially to the distinct, but linked, campuses comprised by the University of Tennessee system. Funds raised through the campaign will directly support the objectives of UT's strategic plan, as outlined by UT President John Petersen. Among those objectives are improved student access and success, research and economic development, outreach and globalization.
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Contact:
Amy Blakely, (865) 974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu
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