Norfolk State University announced the largest gift in its history: a $1 million donation by alumnus Ernest Hodge , who co-owns 20 auto dealerships, mostly on the East Coast.
Norfolk State “gave me the foundation to achieve the things that I have achieved in my life,” Hodge, 56 , who is based in Atlanta, said this week . “It’s good that you give back to those organizations.”
The donation will be used to start a center for entrepreneurship in Norfolk State’s School of Business, said Alvin Schexnider , the interim president of the historically black university. The center will begin by sponsoring lectures by successful businesspeople, he said.
Hodge graduated from Norfolk State in 1975 with a degree in business administration and marketing.
He called himself an “average” student. “As you grow,” Hodge said, “you get more serious about your life and your future.”
Hodge had his eye on sales. “I never wanted anyone to tell me how much money I could make,” he said. “I wanted to decide that myself. In sales, you can do that.”
Hodge’s donation is the largest single gift in the university’s 71-year history, said Paul Shelton , the vice president for advancement. Former NSU President Marie McDemmond last year pledged to donate a total of $1 million to NSU.
Hodge’s record-setting gift also illustrates the sharply differing abilities of colleges to raise funds. While his donation is the largest for Norfolk State, it would be just a trickle at other universities.
Shelton noted, however, that Norfolk State is undertaking its first major fund drive. Hodge’s gift, he said, brings the university more than two-thirds of the way toward its $15 million target.
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