Craig and Deborah Browning donate to WKU Athletics, Gordon Ford College of Business and scholarship fund
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – A pair of WKU alumni who’ve been married for 37 years have made their largest donation to the university.
“We’re very pleased to be involved with WKU Athletics, the College of Business and also from a scholarship standpoint, assisting Edmonson County graduates because that’s where home is,” Craig Browning, 1987 WKU graduate, says.
He and his wife Deborah Browning, originally from Edmonson County, have made a three part donation to their alma mater.
First, a $150,000 commitment to create the Craig and Deborah Browning Family Scholarship Fund that will benefit students in their home county that may have been inspired like Craig when he was younger.
“I had a neighbor that really influenced me from a business perspective. I would see him get out of his car at the end of every day with a necktie on. Holman Madison… and I wanted to do whatever he was doing in the necktie,” Browning says.
The funding came through their estate plans, and has a preference for students aspiring to go to the Gordon Ford College of Business or the College of Education & Behavioral Sciences.
They’ve also made a $25,000 gift to the Summer Browning Rich Scholarship Fund, which is named in honor of their daughter, who is the Gifted & Talented Coordinator for Edmonson County Schools.
The second portion is designated to WKU Athletics, specifically football, men’s basketball, volleyball and the Hilltopper Athletic Foundation. The Browning’s are huge Hilltopper fans, and they want to make the student athletes’ live just a bit easier.
“I’ve served on the Athletic Foundation for years, past president… getting close to the athletic programs, coaches, players… It’s a tough job, and anything we can do to help the athletic programs and the university to shine, we want to do that,” Browning says.
The last part of their donation went to a non-endowed fund to support the facility, maintenance, upgrades and programs in the Gordon Ford College of Business.
In appreciation of that gift, the Browning Family Reflection Pool at Amy and David Chandler Hall was named in their honor.
At the site is a plaque that asks one simple question: “Why am I here?” That question actually helps shape each student’s journey as they walk through the halls of the new home of the GFCB.
“There were a number of times that I thought, ‘Man, do I need to keep doing this or just go to work full time,’ and I think about the reflections that I had at the time at different things that prompted me to say, ‘No, you need to stay with this.’ So as students gather around the reflection pool, maybe they read the plaque, and they understand it really is about more than learning. It’s preparation for life… and hopefully that will inspire a student to hang in there and get that degree and move on to other things that will help them succeed in life,” Browning says.
Craig and Deborah have been donating for 22 years, and he has one message to fellow alumni that have considered doing the same:
“There are other students or young adults that need that assistance. Anything that we can do to help them, we need to do that. If it’s monetary, great. If it’s volunteering, great. If it’s coaching, mentoring, just giving someone a hand up pat on the back, encouragement. We, again, are the stewards of the next generation, and we need to keep that in mind,” Browning says.
On top of being a former HAF president, he also serves as the Chair of the GFCB Advisory Board, and has also served the Center for Leadership Excellence, the Kentucky Museum Advisory Council, and is a former chairman of the WKU Foundation Board of Trustees and a volunteer adjunct professor for the Gordon Ford College of Business.
