The Austin E. Knowlton Foundation has pledged $9.3 million to Denison University to support the Granville school’s efforts to help students transition from the liberal arts into the job market, Columbus Business First reported.
Denison said the gift will create a permanent endowment for what will be renamed the Austin E. Knowlton Center for Career Exploration, designed “to ensure that our graduates have the ‘day-one’ competencies that employers and graduate schools require,” Denison President Adam Weinberg said in a statement.
Austin E. “Dutch” Knowlton was a native of Athens, but moved to Bellefontaine when his father’s Knowlton Brothers Construction company built Mary Rutan Hospital. He was a 1927 graduate of Bellefontaine High School and graduated with a degree in architecture from Ohio State University.
With Paul Brown, he co-founded the Cincinnati Bengals and was the largest shareholder and chairman of the board for 20 years.
His foundation has made a number of charitable gifts, including the Knowlton Library of the Logan County District Libraries in Bellefontaine.