HARRISON LEAVES RICH LEGACY TO THE AREA

Death came suddenly and unexpectedly to Donald L. Harrison Friday evening, and with his passing we have lost one of our region's most successful business leaders and one of our most devoted champions of higher education.

Harrison, 72, was a member of an old Cape Girardeau family with deep roots in the construction business. Always possessed of a fine mind, he attended Southeast Missouri State University for two years before transferring to Yale University, from which he graduated in 1948. With the advent of the interstate highway system in the 1950s, he achieved enormous success in all phases of road and bridge contracting. His business interests came to include concrete and asphalt companies, as well as rock quarries and paving companies. He built highways all over mid-America before branching out as far as Central American countries. In later years he became involved in banking. New associates in that field marveled at his remarkable business acumen.

Through the years he became a collector of art with many fine pieces in his collection. Not one to look upon representative democracy as a spectator sport, Harrison was known as a generous supporter of politicians he liked. Republicans were those who mostly won his backing, but there was the occasional Democrat he deemed worthy of support as well.

Perhaps his most memorable legacy to the region he loved will be in education. Appointed to the Southeast board of regents by two governors of different parties, Harrison warmly embraced the university and its extended family. In recent years he had made large gifts to the school, which in turn recognized those gifts and the extraordinary value of his service by naming the College of Business after him. No other college at the university has ever been named for an individual. It was during his leadership at the school that the Harrison College of Business achieved long-sought goal of accreditation by the prestigious American Association of Colleges of Business. Countless generations of students will benefit from his leadership at the school and from the splendid new quarters that house it.

Donald L. Harrison leaves a rich legacy of friends, family and service. He is that rare and generous leader whose service is appreciated as much as it will now be missed.