RSVP for this Friday’s Morris Hall/STEM Center grand opening
klykins@tntech.edu
Office of Communications & Marketing
Two years of anticipation end in celebration this Friday as Ray Morris Hall, home of the Millard Oakley STEM Center, opens with ceremonies and self-guided tours.
University officials will join STEM Center benefactors, Ray Morris and Millard Oakley, NASA astronaut and TTU alumnus Barry Wilmore, and state and local dignitaries, in an afternoon grand opening ceremony, which will take place in the facility’s auditorium.
Ceremonies begin at 1:30 and will feature founding director Margaret Phelps, President Bob Bell, Oakley STEM Center director Sally Pardue, a NASA representative, Wilmore, Morris and Oakley. Festivities will include the unveiling of the Soaring Science Eagle crafted by internationally renowned sculptor Brad Sells and dedicated by benefactors Harry C. and Debra A. Stonecipher.
The unveiling will be followed by a ribbon cutting at the Seventh Avenue entrance. Self-guided tours will begin after the ribbon cutting.
Upper Cumberland businessman and shareholder of First National Bank of Tennessee, Oakley and his wife, J.J., committed $2 million to launch STEM center efforts. The building constructed to house the STEM Center is named for Morris, president of Venture Construction Co. and a 1959 TTU civil engineering graduate, whose significant contribution helped fund the facility.
State and university officials broke ground for the $8 million, 26,000-square-foot Ray Morris Hall in early May 2008.
Organizers ask that you RSVP this week if you plan to attend. E-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
