Friends of Lipscomb impressed with new Ezell Center
Janel Shoun |
Wet weather forced guests to gather in Ezell’s Sanders-Baxter Hall, a cathedral-like three-story arched lobby, for the ribbon-cutting by Stan Ezell, representative of the Ezell family, the lead donors for the building.
Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), Sen. Douglas Henry (D-Nashville) and former Lipscomb presidents Willard Collins and Harold Hazelip attended the ceremony, which offered thanks to the Ezells and all of the almost 500 donors who made the Ezell Center possible.
Mayor Bill Purcell attended and thanked the Ezell family, founders of Purity Dairies, for helping all his children grow up with “strong bones and healthy teeth” as well as providing such an excellent example of leadership by helping to fund the new building.
The Ezell Center boasts 21 classrooms, television and radio studios, a missions center to serve the hundreds of people who attend Lipscomb-coordinated mission trips each year, a chapel with an impressive stained glass window and a collaborative learning space with portable tables, chairs, whiteboards and walls.
The Ezell Center serves as home to the:
- College of Bible and Ministry
- College of Education and Professional Studies
- Department of Communication
- Department of Education
- Department of History, Politics and Philosophy
- Department of Social Work and Sociology
- Graduate Studies in Education
- Hazelip School of Theology
- Institute for Conflict Management
- Office of Student Advocacy
- Office of the Provost
“Your generosity is certainly felt, as we are now in a better place to touch the lives of students,” she said.
Junior Bible major Cara Peacock, called the Ezell Center “an igniter of change,” noting that the chapel and missions center would provide students with experiential learning and open up their opportunities to serve.
Lipscomb President Randy Lowry praised the Ezell’s for their collaborative attitude – “We want to be supporters, not donors,” Mark Ezell told the president during the construction process.
Stan Ezell echoed that sentiment as he and several of his family took silver scissors to cut the ribbon for the new building.
“The Ezell family is honored to help an institution that is truly leaving an impact on the lives of students,” he said. Miles Ezell, the family patriarch who founded Purity in 1926, would be embarrassed at all the attention that day, Stan said. “He would say his legacy should not be defined by bricks and mortar, but by the lives of the people you touch.”
Guests and donors at the ribbon-cutting also enjoyed tours of the building, musical entertainment and a dinner in their honor. The Ezell family appeared before the Lipscomb student body earlier in the day to discuss their family’s long history of philanthropy in the Middle Tennessee area.