Our History

Established in 1919 as the Department of Commerce of UNC Chapel Hill's College of Arts, the School was renamed the Kenan-Flagler Business School in 1991 to honor two prominent American business families and benefactors of the School: philanthropist Mary Lily Kenan Flagler and her husband, Henry Morrison Flagler. The renaming was in recognition of a generous gift from Frank Hawkins Kenan, another Kenan family member and benefactor of the School's Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.

The Kenan and Flagler Families - A Legacy of Leadership

Both the Kenan and Flagler families have been well represented among leading entrepreneurs of their day. Mary Lily's brother, William R. Kenan Jr., discovered acetylene gas, which led to the creation of Union Carbide. Her husband, Henry Morrison Flagler co-founded the Standard Oil Co. with John D. Rockefeller and is responsible for the development of Florida's eastern coast. Prior to his arrival in Florida, the state was virtually inaccessible except by ship. Flagler founded what eventually became known as the Flagler System Companies made up of railroad, shipping, real estate, and hotel development and utility companies. The system's flagship was the famous Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach.

The Kenan family's roots are intertwined not only with those of the Business School, but of the University itself.

• In the 1790s, Mary Lily's great-great-grandfather, James Kenan, served on UNC's first board of trustees and contributed to the construction of Old East, the oldest public university building in the United States.
• Mary Lily's maternal great-great-grandfather, Christopher Barbee, donated more than 200 acres of his Orange County farm to the University, then about one-fifth of the campus

Gifts to the University by the Kenan family total some $50 million to date and include such buildings as picturesque Kenan Stadium and the Kenan Center. The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust contributed $10 million to the Bicentennial Campaign for UNC to be used for the Kenan-Flagler Business School's new state-of-the-art building, $10 million for the new Paul J. Rizzo Conference Center at Meadowmont, and $1 million for the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology Venturing.

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