William Rand Kenan Jr. (April 30, 1872 – July 28, 1965) was an American chemist, engineer, manufacturer, dairy farmer, and philanthropist.
His father, who became a trustee of the University of North Carolina, was a Civil War veteran, customs collector, life insurance agent, and wholesale merchant.
Kenan graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1894 and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
[4] He started his career by establishing plants for acetylene production in the United States, Australia, and Germany.
[1][2] In 1896, he worked for Union Carbide (now a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company) in Niagara Falls, New York.
When it was revealed that his father participated in the murder of innocent African Americans during the Wilmington insurrection of 1898, the stadium was rededicated to William Kenan Jr.