Creighton leadership and lead donors celebrate opening of Graves Hall

Aug 15, 2023

A few days before 400 freshman students moved into Graves Hall, a few hundred alumni, faculty, staff and friends joined Creighton leadership and the families of the project's lead donors for a grand opening.

I envision with Graves Hall a future of family dropoffs with tears and hugs, and a great future in the new beginnings based in this fabulous hall and courtyard.

Lee C. Graves, BSBA’80, JD’83

Read the Creighton magazine article or see below.

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A few days before 400 freshman students moved into Graves Hall — the first residence hall built exclusively for first-year students since the 1960s — a few hundred alumni, faculty, staff and friends joined Creighton leadership and the families of the project's lead donors for a grand opening and ribbon-cutting celebration.

DSH, the Simpson and the Graves families cut the Graves Hall dedication ribbon.

The names behind Graves Hall and the Simpson Family Courtyard are donors Lee C. Graves, BSBA’80, JD’83, and his wife, Judy Graves, and their close friends Kathy and Jim Simpson, BA’80.

Jim and Lee have known each other since they were Creighton students (and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity brothers) themselves. For them, this day was more than 40 years in the making, a tribute to a Creighton friendship that will now create countless friendships more. (Read more about the Graves and Simpson families' longtime friendship here.)

Lee Graves spoke at the event and recounted his first day as a Creighton freshman, when his parents dropped him off at at his new home: Swanson Hall.

"When it came time to go, mom cried, we hugged, and they took off and left me with my Creighton family," Graves said. "I'm sure they're up in heaven now looking down upon us. I envision with Graves Hall a future of family dropoffs with tears and hugs, and a great future in the new beginnings based in this fabulous hall and courtyard."

Creighton President the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD, likewise highlighted the new hall as the starting point for many Creighton journeys more:

"Memories will be made at Graves Hall and the Simpson Family Courtyard. Lifelong friendships will be formed here. Residents will share both laughter and tears, as they experience life’s successes and failures. And further down the road, as alumni, they will look back and recall the special sense of community that enveloped them at Creighton. We are certain of that because our graduates continually tell us. To them, Creighton means community."

What follows are a series of photos from the dedication ceremony. (You can see additional Graves Hall photos, including those from student move-in, here.)

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