Carol Martin "Bill" Gatton (May 25, 1932 – April 18, 2022) was an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. Gatton was born near

Bremen, Kentucky Bremen () is a home rule-class city in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 172 at the 2020 census. History The city was settled by German immigrants who named it after Bremen, Germany. A post office called Brem ...

, on May 25, 1932. He earned his B.S. in 1954 from the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

. In addition to his degree from UK, he held an M.B.A. in finance and banking from the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a Private university, private Ivy League rese ...

. His start as an entrepreneur began as president and general manager of Bill Gatton Motors in

Owensboro, Kentucky Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of Lou ...

, in 1959. Today, the Bill Gatton Automotive Group includes

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

and

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

dealerships in

Bristol, Tennessee Bristol is a city in the State of Tennessee. Located in Sullivan County, its population was 26,702 at the 2010 census. It is the twin city of Bristol, Virginia, which lies directly across the state line between Tennessee and Virginia. The ...

, and an

Acura Acura is the luxury vehicle, luxury and performance division of Japanese automaker Honda, based primarily in North America. The brand was launched in the United States and Canada on March 27, 1986, marketing luxury and performance automobiles. It ...

Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...

dealership in

Johnson City, Tennessee Johnson City is a city in Washington, Carter, and Sullivan counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, mostly in Washington County. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 71,046, making it the eighth largest city in Tennessee. John ...

. In 1995, Gatton made a multimillion-dollar gift to the College of Business and Economics at UK, the largest gift ever made to the university prior to 2022. In his honor, the UK Board of Trustees later renamed the college "The Carol Martin

Gatton College of Business and Economics Gatton College of Business and Economics is a college of the University of Kentucky. Gatton College educates more than 4,000 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students in accounting, economics, finance, management, and marketing and supply ...

." Opened in 2006, the

East Tennessee State University East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is a public research university in Johnson City, Tennessee. Although it is part of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee, the university is governed by an institutional Board of Tr ...

Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy is also the namesake of Mr. Gatton. Gatton also donated a large sum of money to the formation of the gifted academy at Western Kentucky, opened in 2007 as the Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science, where high school students could finish their last two years of high school taking rigorous college classes. In February 2022, the University of Kentucky announced a $5 million gift from Gatton. This is the single largest scholarship gift UK has ever received, and Gatton remains the university’s single largest donor.

References

External links

UK Alumni Association BiographyGatton College of Business and Economics - University of KentuckyGatton College of Pharmacy - East Tennessee State UniversityBill Gatton Chevrolet-CadillacGatton Honda
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gatton, Bill 1932 births 2022 deaths American automobile salespeople American philanthropists University of Kentucky alumni Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni People from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky Businesspeople from Kentucky