Lowry Mays, Texas A&M graduate and business school namesake, dies at 87

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - Lowry Mays, a 1957 graduate of Texas A&M University and the namesake of its business school, died today at the age of 87.

Mays, who earned his bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering at Texas A&M, was the founder and CEO of Clear Channel Communications. He was dedicated to supporting his alma mater, serving two non-consecutive terms (1985-1991 and 2001-2007) on The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, including as chairman from 2003-2005.

“A really big tree fell in the Aggie forest today,” said John Sharp, chancellor of The Texas A&M University System. “We will never forget what he did for Aggieland.”

Texas A&M’s school of business was endowed by Mays in 1996 with a $15 million gift and was renamed the Lowry Mays College & Graduate School of Business. The university renamed the school once more in 2002 to Mays Business School. In 2017, the Mays Family Foundation gifted an additional $25 million, the largest single commitment in the business school’s history. Both gifts were part of an overall lifetime giving of $47 million.

Read more here by Lesley Henton, Texas A&M University Division of Marketing & Communications.