Love Foundation gives $5M to OU business programs

NORMAN — The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents voted Wednesday to name entrepreneurship programs in the Price College of Business in honor of a $5 million gift from longtime university supporters Tom and Judy Love.

“I can’t think of a name that constitutes what entrepreneurship means and what risk-taking means more than the name of the Love family,” OU President David Boren said.

Tom Love, who attended OU in the 1960s, is founder and executive chairman of Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores. The couple started in 1964 with one location in western Oklahoma. Today, Love’s has more than 440 locations in 41 states and employs more than 20,000 people.

The new gift from the Tom and Judy Love Foundation will support OU’s Innovation Hub, will establish an Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Program to pair student teams with industry experts, and will fund at least 20 student scholarships or “proof-of-concept” grants to students in the entrepreneurship field.

“We are grateful to the Love family for continuing to promote opportunities for our students so that they can build a better future for our state,” Boren said.

“With every passing year, the university becomes more and more dependent for its wellbeing on the generosity of private supporters,” he said.

Private donors this past year gave twice as much to OU — more than $200 million — than the state provided in appropriations, Boren said.

Tom Love said he was skeptical 15 years ago when talk of establishing an entrepreneurial school began.

“I wasn’t sure that you could actually teach entrepreneurship,” Love said. “But my grandson who is here with us today, David, graduated with a degree in entrepreneurship. So it took me a long time, but I finally got it.”

Other actions

Regents approved retirement arrangements for Boren, who is stepping down June 30, including office space in the Oklahoma Memorial Union, an opportunity to continuing teaching in the political science department, continued access to university facilities and events, relocation funding and the designation president emeritus.

“The president has long been very, very fair with his compensation arrangements and working arrangements,” Chairman Clay Bennett said. “It’s with enthusiasm that we recommend these amenities be provided to him and these designations be provided to him in his retirement.”

Boren said he and his wife wish “to continue to be a very active part of the university family.”

Regents also recognized the Dean McGee Eye Institute for being named one of the top three eye institutes nationally for clinical care, residency teaching programs and research following a survey by Ophthalmology Times.

And they named Kelly Feille, assistant professor in the College of Education, as a representative on the board of directors for John Rex Charter Elementary School in Oklahoma City. As sponsor of the charter school, OU has two nonvoting members on the board. Feille will fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Kirk Humphreys from the OU Regents.