Indiana

Trine University alum gives $1 million to namesake school

ANGOLA, Ind. (AP) — A 95-year-old man who graduated from northeastern Indiana’s Trine University in the 1930s is donating $1 million to his alma mater.

Trine officials say Ralph Ketner’s donation is designated for the Ketner School of Business Endowment Fund.

Ketner has been a longtime benefactor of his namesake business school. He previously donated nearly $2 million to endow a chair and to establish an endowment fund for it at the Angola campus.

The Journal Gazette reports Ketner’s parents died during the Great Depression, leaving him an orphan. He graduated from what was then known as Tri-State College in 1939.

Ketner co-founded a company that became Food Lion, a successful 1,300-store grocery chain in the mid-Atlantic and southeast U.S.

He celebrated his 95th birthday in September and lives in Catawba, North Carolina.

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