Release Date: Tuesday, April 4, 2000

WATSON-BROWN FOUNDATION ENDOWS LARGEST MBA SCHOLARSHIP EVER ESTABLISHED AT UGA'S TERRY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

ATHENS, Ga. — A $250,000 endowment from the Watson-Brown Foundation of Thomson, Ga., will fund the M. Monroe Kimbrel MBA Scholarship - the largest individual MBA scholarship ever established at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business.

The gift, announced by the Watson-Brown Foundation, honors Monroe Kimbrel, a 1936 UGA business graduate whose distinguished career in banking included a 12-year appointment as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Kimbrel served as vice president of the Watson-Brown Foundation from its inception in 1970 until his death in 1999.

"Not only is this MBA scholarship honoring Monroe Kimbrel the first graduate scholarship ever endowed by the Watson-Brown Foundation," said Tom Watson Brown Jr., the foundation's secretary and the great-great-grandson of Thomas E. Watson, "but it is also the largest monetary MBA scholarship at UGA. Monroe was not only a trustee of the Watson-Brown Foundation, but he was a mentor and a dear friend."

Kimbrel's banking career began at the First National Bank of Thomson, where he later served as president and chairman. In 1962, he was elected president of the American Bankers Association. Six years later he was appointed president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In 1980, he returned to the Augusta area to become vice-chairman of the First Railroad and Banking Co. of Georgia. Kimbrel was an emeritus trustee of the University of Georgia Foundation, having served on the executive committee. He also served on the advisory councils of Agnes Scott College, Converse College and Wofford College.

The scholarship, with an estimated value of $12,500 annually, will cover full tuition and fees and some living expenses for a Georgia resident with outstanding academic credentials enrolled in the two-year master of business administration degree program at the Terry College. In cooperation with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the scholarship will include a summer internship at the Atlanta branch.

"Through the generosity of the Watson-Brown Foundation, the Monroe Kimbrel Scholarship will be awarded to an exceptional Terry College student for the first time this fall," said Dean P. George Benson. "The Federal Reserve's participation greatly enhances the scholarship by providing a unique internship opportunity for an MBA student."

In 1970, Walter J. Brown established the Watson-Brown Foundation to provide college scholarships for students from the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) of Georgia and South Carolina. Named for Thomas E. Watson of Thomson, Ga., and John Judson Brown of Bowman, Ga., the foundation has provided financial assistance for more than 850 deserving undergraduate students attending more than 50 area colleges and universities.

In addition to providing college scholarships, the Watson-Brown Foundation periodically provides grants for worthwhile academic and educational projects. These include the Walter J. Brown Media Archives Room at UGA, the Special Collections Room for the Thomas E. Watson Library at Brenau University in Gainesville, Ga., and a series of grants to the Mercer University Press. To find more information on the namesakes and history of the Watson-Brown Foundation, go online to www.watson-brown.org.

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