Elmer R. Browning
This article describes the dedication of the Elmer R. Browning lounge in Rawl. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: "Rawl Building Lounge Named in Honor of Dean Elmer Browning," Daily Reflector, October 29, 1962.
Dean Elmer R. Browning of the School of Business at East Carolina was honored by members of four student business organizations at the college last night, when the first-floor lounge of the Rawl building was named in his honor and a portrait of him was hung there. A group of approximately 100 friends of Dean Browning was present for the event.
Business groups which sponsored the dedication and made the gift of the portrait to the college are Delta Sigma Pi, national honorary business fraternity for men; the Future Business Leaders of America; Pi Omega Pi, national honorary business fraternity; and the Society for the Advancement of Management.
Thomas M. Reese of Rocky Mount presided at the dedication ceremoney held in the auditorium of the Rawl building.He announced that brass plaques on the door and a wall of the room will indicate the dedication to Dean Browning and the sponsoring organizations.
President Leo W. Jenkins of East Carolina, as principal speaker of the occasion, called the dedicationa "fitting tribute" to Dean Browning and an evidence of the "high regard in which students and colleagues hold him."
Citing Dean Browning's outstanding service and leadership over a period of twenty-six years at East Carolina, Dr. Jenkins said "He has the admiration and respect of all of us, not only his integrity as a teacher and administrator, but for his unfailing interest in the college."
Paying tribute to Dean Browning as representatives of the sponsoring business organizations were President Malcolm Burris of Henderson, Delta Sigma Pi; President Margaret Mackill of Roanoke Rapids, the FBLA; President Sylvia Harris of Enfield, Pi Omega Pi; and Membership Chairman John J. Heery of Gibbstown, N.J.; the SAM.
The portrait of Dean Browning was unveiled by his son Robert R. Browning of Chapel Hill.The oil painting is the work of Mrs. Marilyn Gordley, well known Greenville artist and a faculty member at East Carolina.
Following the dedication of the portrait, an informal reception was held in the E.R. Browning Room.Arrangements of bronze and yellow chrysanthemums and sprays of pyrocantha berries made the scene a colorful one.Refreshments were served from a table covered with a gray linen cloth, lighted with yellow candles, and centered with a bouquet of chrysanthemums.
Dean Browning came to East Carolina in 1936 as first head of the newly organized Department of Commerce, the purpose of which was to serve as a teacher-training school in the field of business. Since that time he has directed the programs of business and business education at the college.
Beginning with a two-member staff and with approximately forty majors in commerce enrolled, the Commerce Department grew under Dean Browning's leadership first into the Department of Business Education, then into the Department of Business, and in 1960 into the School of Business.
This progression of names was accompanied by a growth in curriculum from seventeen courses in 1936 to more than a hundred today in such areas as secretarial science, economics, marketing, insurance, management finance, accounting, business administration and business education.
In the early years the B.S. degree for students taking work in teacher-training was offered.Now the School of Business also offers the A.B. and the M.A. degrees for students training for careers in business.
In 1936 the Commerce Department occupied three makeshift rooms in the attic of the Austin building ; now the School of Business occupies the first two floors of Rawl building. It has become also one of the best equipped departments of business in the nation, with such modern devices of instruction in use as tape recorders, movie projectors, electric typewriters, and Vu Graph projectors.
To meet new demands and services, the faculty has grown from the original two members to a group of thirty-six full-time teachers.
Services of the School of Business to business and business teachers include several conferences and workshops attended by participants throughout the nation, a program of lectures by outstanding business men and educators, an annual typewriting contest for high schools in Eastern North Carolina counties, management institutes, and a program of extension courses.
The School of Business now has an enrollment of 1417 students and is the largest instructional group at the college.
Growth not only in size but in prestige is indicated by recognition by the Delta Sigma Pi indicates that the School of Business is one of the twelve largest business schools in the South and is in the top 13 percent in the nation.
A native of Logan, W. Va., Dean Browning began his training in business at Bowling Green College of Commerce in Kentucky and later received the A.B. from Marshall University in West Virginia, and the D. Ed. at Colorado State College. He came to East Carolina after teaching and serving as principal in West Virginia high schools.
In 1945-1946 he taught at the American GI universities at Shrivenham, England and Biarritz, France.
He is a former president of the Greenville Rotary and Executivies Club and is now a member of the Board of Managers of the Planters National Bank of Greenville.
He is married to the former Marie Boggess of Ripley, West Virginia. Mrs. Browning is a faculty member of the Department of English at East Carolina.
