Honorary degree OK’d for ASU benefactor

Arkansas State University’s board of trustees voted Friday to award an honorary doctorate degree to philanthropist and business executive Neil Griffin today.

Griffin is an ASU graduate and philanthropic supporter who made a $10 million gift in April. The money — ASU’s largest individual gift to an academic program — will endow a range of scholarships, professorships and enhancement funds for the business college, which now bears his name.

He is a native of the Needham Community, near Jonesboro. In 1948, he graduated from what is now ASU, receiving a business administration degree. Griffin’s career includes jobs in accounting, banking and investment banking. He has been chief executive officer of two publicly held corporations.

These days, Griffin lives in Kerrville, Texas, working as a philanthropist and an angel investor with emerging industries. He and his family have contributed to ASU before, including a scholarship endowment of $5 million in 2012. Griffin has also donated money for cancer treatment and research, and to the fine arts, across the U.S.

ASU’s commencement exercises will be held at First National Bank Arena, 217 Olympic Drive, in Jonesboro. A 10 a.m. ceremony is for students who finished studies at the Colleges of Education and Behavioral Science and Nursing and Health Professions.

A 2:30 p.m. ceremony — the one in which Griffin will be honored — is for students at the Colleges of Agriculture, Engineering and Technology; the Neil Griffin College of Business; Liberal Arts and Communication; Sciences and Mathematics; and Undergraduate Studies.

A reception for graduates and families will be held at the north mezzanine. ASU’s commencement will be livestreamed at http://www.astate.edu/Live/.