Endowed Chairs Honor Company’s Founders
The Chair for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics
 n 1985, the company established an endowed chair at Southern Adventist University in honor of Ruth McKee. The Chair for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics is a fitting tribute to a woman whose insistence on fairness — to employees, customers, and suppliers — is ingrained in the company’s culture and continues to guide our business practices.
The university, a neighbor to our corporate headquarters and Collegedale plants, is where O.D. and Ruth met and is the alma mater of three generations of the McKee family.
The Chair of Excellence in Dyslexia Research and Exceptional Instruction
 n September 23, 1999, the company established the O.D. McKee Chair of Excellence in Dyslexia Research and Exceptional Instruction at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
O.D. was in his sixties before he found out that the learning disability that had made school difficult for him was called dyslexia. As is the case with many dyslexics, the disability had pushed him to excel in areas that don’t require reading and writing.
Earlier, he had provided funds for the university’s College Access Program, which provides tutoring and other assistance to students with learning disabilities.
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