Green Gives to Save Oral Roberts
Mart Green Uses Fortune to Pay Debts Owed By Christian School
Feb 12, 2008
Mart Green is an established businessman and Christian supporter. He now owns his own Christian retail chain of stores, Mardel, and is the heir to the Hobby Lobby craft stores owned by his father. Now, a chunk of the Green family fortune is going to help save Oral Roberts University, a Christian school that is on the brink of closing.
The 46-year-old businessman is said to have had a history of charitable acts. As a boy, he claimed to have given 10 percent of the money he earned working for his father, David Green’s store to charity. This money was earned gluing picture frames together to sell at the business. Since then, the Hobby Lobby has grown into a $1.8 billion craft supply chain including 400 stores. Mart Green dropped out of college in Cleveland, Tennessee at age 19 to start his own business, Mardel, which opened in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1981. It has since expanded to 25 stores in six states, not quite reaching the success of Hobby Lobby though still a success by itself. The store sells educational Christian products such as Bibles, books, and music. In 2002, Green bought a movie company which produces films about missionaries in Ecuador and AIDS in Africa.
The $70 million Green is putting up to save Oral Roberts University will enable the continuation of the education of 5,700 college students. He has no previous history with the school and says his main motivation for the donation is for the alumni, faculty and students as well as the belief that the closing of this school will affect all Christian colleges in a slippery slope effect ["Businessman Rescues Oral Roberts University", msnbc.com, AP Feb. 5, 2008]. In return, Green will become the chairman of the school’s board of trustees to make sure the school’s $45 million in debt is paid and the $60 million in deferred maintenance costs begins to subside.
The Green family is one of the richest in the United States, according to Forbes Magazine, with David Green earning the 271st spot on the list. At the same time, the family’s recent donation has made them the 27th out of the top 50 charitable families in 2007 according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy list. This spot was earned after Green announced the donation in November. Mart Green is able to put up such a large donation in part to a modest lifestyle for his class with a comfortable lifestyle in the suburbs of Oklahoma city where he lives with his wife and four children.
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