CHAPEL HILL - UNC-Chapel Hill will honor alumnus Maurice John Koury during a ceremony at 4 p.m. today when it renames a South Campus residence hall in the Burlington businessman's honor.

Since its completion in 2002, the four-story building has been known as Ehringhaus South. Its new name is Maurice J. Koury Hall.

A Burlington native born of Lebanese immigrant parents, Koury graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1949 and joined his brother Ernest in managing Carolina Hosiery. Today, he serves as president of Carolina Hosiery Mills Inc.

In 1987, Koury endowed the Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professorship in the College of Arts and Sciences as a memorial to his mother. He has donated funds for the Maurice Koury Auditorium in Kenan-Flagler Business School, and has endowed funds for dental research in UNC-CH's School of Dentistry, among other gifts.

Koury Hall houses 263 students in a nearly 73,000-square-foot space. It is similar to three other South Campus residence halls completed in 2002 at a cost of $47 million.

Two of the four buildings were renamed and dedicated in 2007.

One was named in honor of George Moses Horton, a poet and slave in Chatham County in the 19th century who sold produce and verses in Chapel Hill to UNC students, and eventually gained his freedom.

The other honors Paul Hardin, who was chancellor from 1988 to 1995, and led the five-year Bicentennial Campaign for Carolina, which raised $440 million in private gifts.

The fourth South Campus residence hall in the group is Craige North.

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