Owen Graduate School of Management

The student to faculty ratio is about 9 to 1, with 577 students and 49 full-time faculty members.
The school is named for Ralph “Peck” Owen and his wife, Lulu Hampton Owen. Ralph Owen, a Vanderbilt alumnus (’28), was a founder of Equitable Securities Corporation in Nashville, and he became the chairman of the American Express Company.
== History ==
In 1881, Vanderbilt's Board of Trust submitted its first proposal for a business education program, calling it the Commercial College Department. However, it wasn't until the mid-1950s that a business administration program was offered in the Department of Economics.
The Board of Trust passed the school's founding resolution on May 5, 1967, and operations as the Graduate School of Management began in September 1969 with twelve faculty members and six students. Classes met in a renovated funeral home, a gift from Mr.