Jones School building named for McNairs
by Nathan Black
Thresher Editorial Staff
The building housing the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management has been named after two of Rice’s largest individual donors. The Board of Trustees named the building Janice and Robert McNair Hall during their May meeting. The McNairs donated $17.5 million to the business school in 1999.
Robert McNair, a trustee from 1994 to 2002 and the majority owner of the Houston Texans, said he and his wife did not donate expecting to become the namesakes of the school’s building.
“Our gift was given without any strings [attached],” he said.
Former Jones School Dean Gil Whitaker (‘53) said he convinced the board to name the building after the McNairs.
“I really approached [the McNairs] about naming [the building] with great caution, because I was afraid they were going to say no,” Whitaker said. “They’re very modest people.”
Whitaker said he thought the McNairs would make a great namesake because of their donations to the building’s construction and their standing in the Houston community.
“Honoring [Robert McNair] honors us more than it does him because his leadership in the community has been so profound,” Whitaker said.
McNair said when he was a trustee, the board felt that the school needed to grow in order to be of higher quality. He saw the new building as a necessary step toward increasing the Jones School’s enrollment and faculty size.
Current Jones School Dean William Glick said Robert McNair’s entrepreneurship — McNair founded an energy company and sold it to Enron in 1999 — was in line with his vision of the school.
“[The McNairs] have been able to identify … the next industry to really grow and do well,” Glick said. “That is exactly where we see the Jones School going.”
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