The Gill Center for Business and Economic Education was created in 1968. Through its affiliation with the Ohio Council on Economic Education, it is responsible for economic education in an 11-county area extending from Marion County in the southwest to Holmes County in the southeast and north to Erie and Lorain counties.
The Gill Center is dedicated to Harry Ross Gill (1887-1964), founder of the National Latex Products Co., Ashland, Ohio. His achievements are an example of why Ashland University supports the American economic system which provides the greatest opportunity for an individual to experience personal freedom, individual development and human dignity.
Mr. Gill founded a company which manufactured rubber balloons with sales of over $1 million in 1928. Losing controlling interest in the business during the Depression, he left the company and funded National Latex Products Co. Following WWII, his sons, Harry Jr. and David, joined him. David died in 1958 and Harry R. Gill Sr. died in 1964. Since that time, the company has been ably run by Harry Ross Gill Jr. and his son, H. Ross Gill III, a 1970 graduate of Ashland University.
As the epitome of entrepreneurship within the framework of the private enterprise system, the Gills serve as an inspiration and as counsel to the varied activities of the Center bearing their name.