AIT’s Evans gave $48M to start Marian med school

Michael Evans, the CEO of Indianapolis-based AIT Laboratories, donated $48 million to help construct the Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine, prompting the school to name its medical school building after him.

Marian disclosed Evans’ 2010 donation Wednesday as it held a groundbreaking ceremony for its medical and nursing school building, which will be called the Michael A. Evans Center for Health Sciences.

Marian President Dan Elsener said he and the school’s board of trustees had to prevail on Evans to put his name on the building.

“Our hope is that every student who is educated here will be inspired by his legacy and understand how they can share their gifts with others as selflessly as he has,” Elsener said in a prepared statement.

Evans was an Army Ranger who served and was injured in Vietnam. After a lengthy recovery, he earned a doctorate in toxicology from the Indiana University School of Medicine. He later worked as a professor at the IU medical school, as well as at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Illinois Institute of Technology, and the University of Illinois College of Medicine.

Evans is the founder of AIT Laboratories, which does toxicology and other kinds of testing for pharmaceutical companies, law enforcement agencies and others. At the end of 2010, it had grown to 460 workers and had annual revenue of $65 million.

In 2009, AIT instituted an employee stock ownership plan that transfers ownership of the company to its employees. A year after that transaction, he made his gift to Marian.

Marian, a small Catholic college on Cold Spring Road in Indianapolis, is starting the state’s second medical school. The school will enroll 150 medical students each year, beginning in 2013.