Residence Hall Naming Ceremony Set For Oct. 23, at 2 p.m.

Two extraordinary philanthropists will be recognized on Friday, Oct. 23, when Limestone College will name its most recent residential hall in their honor.

Opened in 2011 and currently known as the “New Residence Hall,” the student housing building will be named “Vivian Elledge and George Carl Ball Residence Hall” during a ceremony starting at 2 p.m. The couple’s daughter, Anna C. Ball, will attend the event. She now serves as the president and CEO of Chicago-based Ball Horticultural Company, an internationally renowned business that breeds, produces, and distributes seeds and other horticultural products in 17 countries on six continents. The company was founded by Carl’s father, George Jacob Ball, in 1905. Anna’s father served as owner and president from 1970 until 1995.

Vivian Elledge Ball was a 1940 graduate of Limestone who later served on the Board of Trustees. She and her husband are recognized as exceptional benefactors to Limestone, giving $1 million gifts in both 1998 and 2001. The College also received a $1 million gift in 2003 from the G. Carl Ball Foundation, which is an organization deeply involved in education reform and dedicated to the understanding of human aptitudes and potential.

The Alumna of the Year in 1999, Mrs. Ball received an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Limestone that same year. She served as a member of the Board of Directors of George J. Ball Incorporated, and was president of the Ball Foundation.

“After entering college as a 16-year-old and being taught by outstanding professors such as Katie Pfohl and Dr. Montague McMillan, I wanted to give something back to the College for the excellent education I received at Limestone,” Mrs. Ball said in 1998. “I like the college and the area very much, and I’ve had some good experiences with the townspeople of Gaffney, who were very kind.”

Mrs. Ball was born in Ware Shoals and upon graduating from Limestone taught English Literature at Greenwood High School. She married Carl Ball in 1943 and moved to Glen Ellyn, IL, a suburb of Chicago.

Mrs. Ball died on March 23, 2000, while serving as a member of the Board of Trustees, and her daughter, Anna, was elected in October of 2000 to fulfill her term through July of 2001. She was then elected to her own terms from 2001 until 2006 and from 2007 until 2012.

Carl Ball, who attended Kenyon College in Ohio and graduated from the University of Illinois in 1947, died on Sept. 22, 2004. He was a pilot in the Air Transport Command during World War II. After his service, he became a commercial pilot with Northwest Airlines, and later joined the family business, George J. Ball, Inc., which is now known as Ball Horticultural Company.

“The lasting positive influence that Limestone had on Vivian we want to make possible for others,” Mr. Ball said in 2001. “I have enormous confidence in the future of Limestone and the good work it can do for individuals, for the local community, for the state, and for our country.”

The $1 million gift in 1998, the largest single gift ever received from an individual in the history of the College, provided $500,000 to the Limestone endowment and the other half was used for various projects including the restoration efforts of Winnie Davis Hall of History, improvements to the Dobson Student Center in Dixie Lodge, work on the Limestone Aquatic Center pool, and repairs to Fullerton Auditorium.  To honor the Ball family’s commitment to literacy, the College purchased new books and periodicals for the A.J. Eastwood Library.

Twenty percent of the $1 million gift in 2001 was used to establish an endowed scholarship to attract outstanding students to Limestone. Other portions of the gift were used to improve on-campus housing, make needed repairs, and update resources for the library.

A member of the Ball Foundation, Anna Ball received a B.A. from the University of Colorado and an MBA from Northwestern University. Vivian and Carl also have two sons, G. Dexter Ball and George Ball.

The residence hall to be renamed on Oct. 23 is located along Griffith Street in Gaffney, and sits directly across from the construction site of the Walter W. Brown Residence Hall that is set to open in the fall of 2016.