This fund, honoring the first dean of the University of Florida business school, Walter J. Matherly, supports professorships in each department of the Warrington College of Business.

Matherly was born May 3, 1888, in Mackville, KY. He received a bachelor’s degree from William Jewell College in Missouri and a master’s degree from Washington University in 1916. He taught at the University of North Carolina before coming to the University of Florida in 1926 to organize its business school, where he served as dean until his death in 1954. He was the driving force in the creation of the Southern Economic Association and served as its first president. The college’s Matherly Hall is named in his honor.