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Reflections on Collegiate Entrepreneurship Centers:
Ten Years Later
Burton D. Morgan (1916-2003) became a serial entrepreneur after receiving his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 1938. He achieved his professional goals through hands-on experience in the adhesives industry and his own special brand of street smarts. He started more than 50 companies during his lifetime, and while many failed, a number were highly successful. In spite of his success, he regretted that he did not have a formal educational opportunity that would have taught him entrepreneurial skills and spared him many of the pitfalls that precipitated his business stumbles along the way. He attempted to design his own university program in entrepreneurship, but ultimately it did not meet his needs.
Decades before the current proliferation of entrepreneurship programs, Mr. Morgan wrote and spoke about the need for formal entrepreneurship education. He made the strategic decision to focus the resources of The Burton D. Morgan Foundation on the development of entrepreneurship programs for all ages. We are proud to inspire new generations of entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams.
In the late 1990s, Mr. Morgan channeled his passion to champion the creation of entrepreneurship centers on college campuses. “Lay bricks now” became his mantra. In 2000, the Foundation staged a Request for Proposal process through which selected colleges and universities submitted design ideas for campus entrepreneurship centers. Over the next four years, the Foundation funded entrepreneurship centers at Ashland University, Denison University, Purdue University, and The College of Wooster. Subsequently, in 2008, the Foundation funded the Burton D. Morgan Entrepreneurship Center at Hiram College, part of a new residential learning community established for entrepreneurship students at that school. We are also proud to fund entrepreneurship programs in each of these buildings. The presence of physical centers on each campus makes an affirmative statement about the identity and importance of the programs. We are celebrating the ten-year anniversary of this initiative with a reflection on the buildings and their programs, including comments from the college presidents and program leaders.
