Monroe J. Carell Jr. (1932 – June 19, 2008) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the Chairman and CEO of

Central Parking Corporation SP Plus Corporation is an American provider of parking facility management services. It manages parking facilities with more than one million parking spaces across the United States and Canada. Until December 2013, it was known as Standard Parking ...

Early life

Monroe Carell was a graduate of

Father Ryan High School Father Ryan High School is a private Catholic coeducational high school in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1925 as Nashville Catholic High School for Boys, Father Ryan is located in the Diocese of Nashville. It was the first racially integrated hi ...

and earned a degree in electrical engineering from

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

in 1959.

Career

Carell cofounded Central Parking with Richard Dennis in 1967. By 1980, he had bought out his business partner, and the firm was the fourth largest parking company in the United States. The company went public in 1995, and in 1997 with an estimated worth of $600 million, Carell made the

Forbes 400 The ''Forbes'' 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by ''Forbes'' magazine of the wealthiest 400 American citizens who own assets in the U.S., ranked by net worth. The 400 was started by Malcolm Forbes in 1982 and the list is publ ...

list. Central Parking was bought by a private equity firm in 2007, and the Carell family, owning nearly half of the shares, walked away with nearly $350 million.

Philanthropy

The Carell family has funded several scholarships and construction projects in the Nashville area. The

Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, also known as Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care Children's hospital, children's teaching hospital and entity of Vanderbilt University Medical Center ...

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

is named in recognition of his financial contribution. In 2001, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the

Vanderbilt University School of Engineering The School of Engineering provides undergraduate and graduate education in engineering and the engineering sciences at Vanderbilt University, a major research university located in Nashville, Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the Sta ...

. In 2008, he was named the Nashvillian of the Year by the Easter Seals of Tennessee

Personal life

Carell was married to Ann Scott (1935-2012) for fifty-two years, and they had three daughters.Scott Sutton
Philanthropist Ann Carell dies after short illness
''

WSMV-TV WSMV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Telemundo affiliate WTNX-LD (channel 15). The two stations share studios on Knob Road in ...

'', August 21, 2012

Death

Carell died on June 19, 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carell, Monroe J. Jr. 1932 births 2008 deaths Businesspeople from Nashville, Tennessee Vanderbilt University alumni Philanthropists from Tennessee 20th-century American philanthropists 20th-century American businesspeople