Wake Forest University to rename East Hall in honor of trustee

East Hall will be renamed Greene Hall on Oct. 5. Greene recently made a $5 million unrestricted commitment to the university’s endowment.

“Bill’s commitment came at a time when we required a valued Wake Forest name for this significant university space,” said Wake Forest President Thomas K. Hearn Jr. “It is highly appropriate that East Hall be named for a graduate who is now one of our most active and generous alumni leaders.”

The dedication ceremony will begin at 4:30 p.m. on the university’s Magnolia Court. A five-story classroom building, East Hall was completed last fall for the psychology, Romance languages and German and Russian departments. It is located between Carswell and Calloway halls.

Greene was born in Winston-Salem, but grew up in Kingsport, Tenn. He attended Wake Forest on a basketball and golf scholarship and just a few years later-at the age of 25-was the youngest bank president and CEO in the United States.

In 1990, he received Wake Forest’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. He was named to the Wake Forest Board of Trustees in 1989 and has chaired the board’s Investments Policy Committee for the past several years.

Greene is a co-chair of “The Campaign for Wake Forest University: Honoring the Promise.” The campaign will have its public kickoff in April.

“As we grow, we realize what a special place Wake Forest was and what it meant to us,” Greene said. “All of us who have a piece of Wake Forest in our soul have to put back in.”

Recognized as a pioneering banker in Tennessee, Greene formed that state’s first statewide banking organization. He co-founded the Bank of Tennessee in Kingsport and is currently chairman of its parent company, BancTenn Corporation. Greene is also chairman of Carter County Bank and Carter County BanCorp in Elizabethton, Tenn. In 1999, he co-founded Paragon Bank in Raleigh.