In recognition of the biggest philanthropic support ever for University of Alabama at Birmingham, the university has renamed its business school the Charles and Patsy Collat School of Business.
Charles Collat Sr. was long the CEO of Mayer Electric Supply Co. Inc., growing the family business into one of the city’s largest privately held companies.
The couple’s gifts and pledges to the school total more than $25 million.
Announced as the kickoff to UAB’s most ambitious fundraising campaign to date, the Collat support is a “transformational gift, ” said UAB President Ray Watts.
The Collat family has created several endowed chairs at UAB, and their most recent gift will be used for scholarships and programs in entrepreneurship, industrial distributions and similar fields within the business school.
While the university talked with delight about the gift, Collat said giving it left him feeling “humbled. Being able to support an institution like UAB that plays such an important part in so many lives is something I wouldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams. What this means to me cannot be measured or described.”
Text by Nedra Bloom
