A $2.5 million commitment from a Mississippi State alumnus will help fund a new alumni and development center at the university.

The lead commitment from Hunter W. Henry Jr., a 1950 chemical engineering graduate, will assist with planning and construction of a building to house the staffs of both the MSU Alumni Association and the MSU Foundation.

The facility will be built at an already approved campus site and will be funded entirely with private funds, said Dennis A. Prescott, vice president for external affairs.

Henry, of San Marcos, Texas, is the retired president of Dow Chemical USA. A member of the executive committee of the MSU Foundation's board of directors, he is a former national alumnus of the year and a distinguished engineering fellow.

In 1988, the year he was recognized as the university's outstanding alumnus, he was among 10 university alumni featured in a volume published by the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges to honor the contributions of the nation's major universities.

"Mr. Henry has a long history of giving to Mississippi State, having previously funded an endowed chair in chemical engineering, as well as major scholarship programs in engineering and other disciplines," Prescott noted.

"We are grateful for his leadership pledge, because it allows us to move the project forward," he said. "As a result of his commitment, the university will propose to the Board of Trustees, state Institutions of Higher Learning that the new facility, when finished, be named the Hunter W. Henry Jr. Center."

In addition to office space, the new alumni center also will include meeting space, banquet and reception facilities, and an area for donor recognition.