McDaniel College Names Stadium After Ken Gill

After working for about eight years to raise money for a new stadium at his Alma Mater, McDaniel College in Westminster, Ken Gill of Severna Park will have his name on it in recognition of his efforts.

Gill, a trustee at the school, spearheaded a campaign to fund an $8 million-plus stadium solely through charitable donations, including his own.

covered by Westminster Patch was held Feb. 3 where the new Kenneth R. Gill Stadium is being built. When complete, the campus will boast a two-story brick and concrete multipurpose stadium with a new entrance and roadway on West Main Street and a pedestrian walkway, according to a news announcement. 

"It is a very nice honor," Gill said. "It takes a lot of money to build a football stadium, it was quite an effort but we accomplished it."

Gill, a 1961 graduate, played football for four years at the school and started for three seasons, including in 1960 when McDaniel won the Mason Dixon Conference.

Gill and his wife Joann are philanthropists with two passions, he said—the college and the Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, where a walkway is named after the couple. 

He describes himself as a "serial entrepreneur" having dabbled in restaurants, financial advising and most recently as a distributor of large-scale commercial kitchen equipment. His company, the Gill Group, with offices around the world, has installed kitchens for the Ravens training center, the Mayflower Hotels and Comcast, among others. The couple splits their time between Severna Park, where they are members of the Chartwell Golf and Country Club, and Arizona.

Construction is set to begin this month with a targeted completion date for the first home football game on Sept. 15, according to the news announcement.