A Colorado business executive has committed $1 million to Oregon State University to honor his former accounting professor, who died in February.

The funds, donated by Thomas W. Toomey, will go to create an endowed professorship and expand an endowed scholarship in the name of the late Mary Ellen Phillips.

"Since graduating from OSU, I often reflect upon the insight and professionalism that Mary Ellen bestowed upon all her students," said Toomey, the president and chief executive officer of UDR Inc., an S&P 400 company that owns and manages more than 43,000 apartments in the United States.

Phillips was a pioneer in the public accounting field. She entered the profession in 1956, when the ratio of men to women was 65 to 1, and she was one of the first 1,000 women in the country to become a CPA.

She was an OSU business faculty member from 1973 to 1994.

Last month, OSU selected Jared Moore as the first holder of the professorship in Phillips' honor. Moore teaches junior and senior level courses taken by all accounting majors.

In one class, he uses a teaching method - originally called the "Never Lose Company" n that Phillips developed more than 20 years ago in which students act as the accounting department for a fictional company for an entire accounting cycle.

"Mary Ellen Phillips was a trailblazer," Moore said. "It is humbling to have my name associated with hers. It is just an amazing honor."

The gift is part of the Campaign for OSU, the university's first comprehensive fundraising campaign, which seeks to raise $625 million.