With a $20 million gift, investment fund manager C.T. Fitzpatrick and his wife Kelley Fitzpatrick became the largest cash donors in the history of the University of Alabama, university officials announced today.
C.T. Fitzpatrick, a value investor who founded the Vulcan Value Fund in 2007, joined by his wife, topped up a previous $3 million gift to a total of $24 million in UA donations.
The earlier gift, made in 2015, endowed the creation of the Vulcan Value Partners Research Library and Trading Room at the Culverhouse College of Business, making UA’s business school the first in the nation to offer a value investing concentration at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
The $20 million gift includes $8 million for the establishment of the C.T. and Kelley Fitzpatrick Center for Value Investing.
“We are doing this because the University has been a good steward of our initial investment,” said C.T. Fitzpatrick. “We think the additional investment can earn even higher returns and ultimately help more students, as well as benefit the University, the state and the region. There is a lot of leverage in the gift.”
Also included in the Fitzpatricks’ recent donation are: $1.5 million to bolster marketing efforts; $2 million to enhance professional development and career services for all Culverhouse undergraduate students; and a $2.5 million matching gift challenge toward the $30 million campaign for completion of Hewson Hall in fall 2019.
The Fitzpatricks also designated $5 million of the gift to the Crimson Standard Capital Initiative to support enhancements to Crimson Tide athletic facilities.
“The Fitzpatrick family continues to transform the UA College of Business through remarkable investments in our students’ lives and professional careers,” said UA President Stuart R. Bell.
Montgomery native C.T. Fitzpatrick earned his bachelor’s from the University of
Alabama and MBA from Vanderbilt University. During his 17 years with Southeastern Asset Management, he was a principal, portfolio manager and vice president. In 2007, he established Vulcan Value Partners to manage his personal capital and began taking clients in 2010.
Kelley Fitzpatrick is a Tuscaloosa native and the daughter of Lewis Manderson, for whom UA’s Manderson Graduate School of Business is named.
C.T. Fitzpatrick was profiled in Business Alabama’s December 2018 feature, “20 Who Make Alabama Business Tick.”
