Longtime Livingston resident Millard Oakley will make the largest donation ever to Cumberland University.
The former law school graduate and state official will gift $5 million. The donation will fund an enhancement project to the entrance of the university’s main building, Memorial Hall.
Cumberland will also name the School of Humanities, Education and the Arts after the Oakley family.
Millard Oakley practiced law in Livingston, Tennessee and the Upper Cumberland area starting in 1953. He was elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1952 and served multiple terms in the state legislature ending in 1963.
Oakley also was general counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Small Business from 1971 to 1973 and was the state’s Insurance Commissioner from 1975 to 1979.
Since 1980, Oakley has worked in business investments and real estate ventures.
