This Day in the History of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Mary Lily Kenan, daughter of William Rand Kenan, Sr. and Mary Hargrave, was born in Kenansville, North Carolina. After graduating from Peace Institute in Raleigh, she married Standard Oil Trust executive and Florida developer Henry Flagler on August 24, 1901. When she died on July 17, 1917, she left the University a substantial bequest, which would eventually be used to create the Kenan Professorships Fund.