Each week for the rest of the semester, the Sunflower will investigate the stories behind the names of campus building. This week is the story of Ablah Library.

Each day, hundreds of students pass the portraits of brothers Frank and Harvey with their wives in the Wichita State Ablah Library, but few know the struggle these men went through.

The Ablah family moved to Wichita in 1907. They were immigrants from Lebanon. Frank and Harvey’s father, J.S. Ablah, worked his way up in Wichita, selling groceries and later building a real estate company and hotel chain.

The brothers believed in cultivating a good relationship with the university and wanted to encourage higher education.

Following a tragic fire years earlier, the library re-opened its doors in 1962 in the Ablah name.

Many reports have been written about the Ablahs and their contributions to Wichita and WSU. But many students don’t know anything about them.

Students didn’t even know there were pictures of the donors. In 2007, their portraits were memorialized above the resource desk.

“When someone shows such generosity it should be honored and respected,” said Kathy Downes, associate dean of University Libraries. “Especially by the people who are benefiting from it.”