This endowment provides support for professional development of newly hired professors, professorships for high performing faculty, new graduate programs, leveraging research grants and the development of innovative educational opportunities in the Rinker School of Building Construction.

Marshall E. “Doc” Rinker, Sr., transformed the one-truck business he began 70 years ago into one of the nation’s largest concrete-supplying companies, amassing a fortune with which he began the M.E. Rinker, Sr., Foundation in 1988.

Rinker was the founder, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of Rinker Materials Corp. from 1926 to 1988 until he sold it to CSR Ltd. The College of Design, Construction and Planning renamed its School of Building Construction in honor of Rinker in 1989. He passed away on April 11, 1996.