Arkansas State University will award an honorary doctorate degree to a man who donated the largest individual gift to an academic program for the Jonesboro campus.
Neil Griffin, a 1948 graduate of what is now called Arkansas State University, will receive his honorary degree during commencement Saturday. The ASU Trustees voted Friday to confer the Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
In April, he donated $10 million, which ASU is using to endow scholarships, professorships and enhancement funds for the operations of its business college. ASU renamed the college after Griffin.
Griffin grew up in the Needham community, near Jonesboro, in northeast Arkansas. He served in World War II. Afterward, he enrolled at what was then called Arkansas State College after his discharge. He has worked in finance, primarily in accounting and banking.
He lives in Kerrville, Texas, where he spends time on philanthrophy and working as an angel investor.
Griffin is the 18th recipient of an honorary doctorate from ASU. Others include U.S. Sen. Hattie Caraway in 1934, Gov. Mike Beebe in 2007; and rockabilly musician Sonny Burgess in 2011.