UArizona College of Pharmacy

R. Ken Coit

$50 Million Gift Names R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy

R. Ken Coit has a plan for the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy and he’s putting $50 million behind it.

“It is my goal to see the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy take its place among the top three programs in the nation,” Coit said in announcing the gift to the UArizona college he attended. “With this gift, the college can recruit the best and brightest students and faculty who will go on to change the face of health care around the world.”

Coit graduated from the College of Pharmacy with a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in 1967. He practiced pharmacy for three years before beginning a career in investing and financial planning. Though he didn’t work in the pharmacy industry for long, he credits his professors with instilling the values that made him successful.

“I may not be a pharmacist now, but I learned a lot in pharmacy school that’s still important to me,” he said. “They really instilled that we were there to take care of others. I kept and transferred that value when I changed to investing.”

Coit made the announcement during Homecoming Weekend in November with President Robert C. Robbins, John-Paul Roczniak, president and CEO of the UArizona Foundation, and Rick G. Schnellmann, dean of the College of Pharmacy.

The College of Pharmacy will now bear his name as the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy. Coit has been a longtime donor to the college and has supported it with $68 million over the last 49 years.

The new gift also establishes six endowed chairs as well as an endowment to support scholarships for the college’s doctor of pharmacy and doctoral programs. The gift will also be used to fund strategic investments in research equipment and facility upgrades.

“The College of Pharmacy has been at the forefront of drug discovery research and pharmaceutical education since its inception more than 70 years ago,” Robbins said. “Through Ken’s inspirational gift, the college will have the resources to continue leading the way on these fronts.”

“His generous support has advanced not only the College of Pharmacy, but the entire University of Arizona in its capacity to serve others both near and far,” Roczniak said.

The college is one of the premier pharmacy schools in the nation and recently was ranked No. 7 by the American Associations of the College of Pharmacy’s list of colleges with the most National Institutes of Health grant funding.