The Timken Company, a global Fortune 500 company, through its foundation, has given $250,000 to Anderson University to help build a new $15.2 million student center and dining hall.
Officials from the Honea Path, South Carolina, facility of The Timken Company, a global leader in technology associated with friction management and improved technological performance of machinery, presented University President Dr. Evans Whitaker with the first of two $125,000 checks at the Anderson campus on Oct. 16.
The company, headquartered in Canton, Ohio, was founded by St. Louis carriage maker Henry Timken in 1899. Timken patented a tapered roller bearing design that made life easier for freight carriage operators and their mules. Today, the company has plants all over the world. The Timken Foundation invests in worthy endeavors in communities near its facilities.
“Even though Timken is a publically held company, it still bears the family name Timken and operates very much like a family with strong core values including ethics and integrity,” said Randy Dunn, plant manager of the Honea Path plant. “It is very important for Timken to be involved in the local community, especially in the cause of education.”
“We are extremely grateful for this amazing vote of confidence in what we are doing at Anderson University,” Dr. Whitaker said. “The new student center will transform our campus, and it has been a tremendous need for four decades. The generosity of Timken brings it closer to reality.”
Anderson hopes to break ground for the student center, the largest construction project in university history, in the fall of 2014. At 80,000-square-feet, the structure will be the center of campus life with state-of-the-art recreation, fitness, dining and student gathering facilities. The Timken donation pushes fundraising for the facility to near $10.25 million, approximately 70 percent of the total project goal.