An $8.5 million gift from Robert and Mary Kay Taylor will support a crucial element in the comprehensive new home for Miami University’s Farmer School of Business.
Their gift, announced today by the university, will support a 500-plus-seat auditorium that can be configured to accommodate various sizes of groups in an optimal setting. The Miami University Naming Committee has approved the naming of the Auditorium in memory of his son, David R. Taylor, and has referred their recommendation to the Miami University Board of Trustees for approval during their February meeting.
“I am thrilled that the Taylors have decided to focus their gift on our new auditorium,” said Farmer School Dean Roger L. Jenkins. “This facility will make an enormous difference to us in terms of giving our students access to business executives and other special events related to the curriculum. The Taylors’ gift will benefit the entire university, adding a performance space that will be highly useful, thanks to its design, size, and location.”
“Mary Kay and I found the case for this auditorium very compelling,” explained Robert Taylor. “Given the number and stature of speakers who visit the Farmer School, the need for this kind of facility was clear. We are impressed by the design and overall usefulness of the auditorium to the Farmer School as well as to the university as a whole.”
The two-story auditorium will feature tiered seating, which will radiate from a point at the front of the room, maximizing visual and auditory qualities of the space. The side walls will be angled and the back wall curved.
Robert Taylor, Chairman and CEO of Robert Taylor Companies, earned a business degree from Miami University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1957. He continued his education at Stanford University, completing an MBA in 1959. After two years in sales with Johnson & Johnson, Taylor formed the Howe-Taylor Marketing agency in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region, then founded Village Bath Products in 1964. That enterprise, which changed its name to Minnetonka Corporation, became a leading manufacturer of gift soaps, bath oils, and shampoos. In 1980, Taylor purchased Calvin Klein cosmetics and introduced the popular Obsession and Eternity perfumes. In 1989 Taylor, then Chairman, President and CEO of Minnetonka, sold the company to Unilever. He has since pursued other business ventures in the personal products arena.
Both Robert and Mary Kay Taylor have been active in charitable organizations focused on young people. In addition to serving with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities, they have established Kid-Mit-Ment, a foundation that seeks to help children threatened by abuse, illness, hunger and homelessness.
In their leisure time, the Taylors enjoy their family—including four grandchildren—as well as traveling and golf.
“The Taylors’ very generous gift is significant not only for what it accomplishes physically within the new Farmer School of Business building, but for the high level of commitment it represents from an alumnus whose Miami education proved the launching pad for a remarkable entrepreneurial career,” said Miami University President David Hodge. “We are enormously grateful to Robert and Mary Kay Taylor for their passionate and generous support of Miami’s future.”
The Taylors’ gift benefits Miami University’s For Love and Honor campaign.
The Farmer School of Business at Miami University offers an academically rigorous program enriched by real-world experience and many international study options. Students benefit from the full resources of Miami University as well as the expertise and personal attention afforded them by business faculty members, who are fully committed to undergraduate learning. In addition to its undergraduate curricula in six academic disciplines, the Farmer School offers three small, selective graduate programs.
