 It is named for Ralph Waldo Beeson (1900-1990), who gave one of the largest donations (70 Million) in Samford history to create the first divinity school at a Baptist college in the USA, and for his father, John Wesley Beeson.Ralph Beeson wanted the donation to remain anonymous, but relented to the naming of the school after his father as well at the suggestion of Samford's board of trustees.The focal point of the divinity school is the Andrew Gerow Hodges Chapel, dedicated in 1995 and named in honor of Andrew Gerow Hodges in 2002.