Charles Howard Candler Sr. (1898C)

Eldest son

of the founder of The Coca-Cola Company, was, at his death in 1957, the University's single largest benefactor. He would hold that place of honor until gifts from Robert Woodruff surpassed the Candler benefactions during the 1970s. In 1927 he joined the Board of Trustees, which elected him to the chair in 1929 on the death of his father Asa. Known affectionately all his life by his middle name, Howard Candler poured money into the university being built by his father and Uncle Warren. It was owing to his generosity that the roads of the Druid Hills campus were paved finally in 1929. In 1955 he gave seven hundred thousand dollars to the University to construct the Administration Building across the Quadrangle from the library named for his father. At his death, he left instructions that his beautiful estate, Callanwolde, should be given to the University as a center for the arts. When the University administration could find no good way to implement the bequest, Candler's widow, Flora Glenn Candler, gave an equivalent amount of money to establish the Charles Howard Candler Professorships, which rank among Emory's most prestigious endowed chairs.

Source: Gary S. Hauk, A Legacy of Heart and Mind: Emory since 1836