CHAMPAIGN, Ill., — The Commerce West Building will be renamed Wohlers Hall in a ceremony Thursday in recognition of a $6 million gift from Albert H. and Jane Wohlers.
The building has undergone extensive remodeling and updating as a result of the Wohlers’ gift to the College of Commerce and Business Administration at the University of Illinois.
The ceremony will begin at 1:30 p.m. on the Commerce Quad between Wohlers Hall and David Kinley Hall. (Enter the Commerce Quad through the west entrance at 1206 S. Sixth St., Champaign.)
Al Wohlers, who earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the UI in 1939, developed one of the nation’s largest insurance agencies. Jane Wohlers, a 1941 UI journalism graduate, was corporate secretary for the firm.
New features in Wohlers Hall include technology-upgraded classrooms, a dean’s suite, a laboratory research suite, student lounge, main lecture hall and improved mechanical systems. The building also has a new entranceway.
In addition to Al Wohlers, scheduled speakers at the ceremony include William D. Engelbrecht, president of the UI Board of Trustees; James J. Stukel, UI president; Michael Aiken, chancellor of the Urbana-Champaign campus; Sidney S. Micek, president of the UI Foundation; and William R. Bryan, interim dean of CBA.
