Generations Bound in Blue and White The Ball Family’s gift honors a matriarch’s commitment to education and service.

Amanda Minix
March 19, 2026

With four generations at Washington and Lee University — and counting — the Ball family is invested in the institution in every sense. The most recent evidence of their deep-rooted devotion is a generous commitment supporting a matching gift challenge to fund Founders Hall — the new building that will house the offices of Admissions, Financial Aid and the Johnson Program in Leadership and Integrity. The family’s gift was made in memory of Chris Butler Ball P’96, P’00, P’01 who passed away in April 2024. Chris Ball was a trustee emerita who championed education and community service. Donors include her husband, Billy Ball ’69, P’96, P’00, P’01, and their three children and spouses: Butler Ball ’96, P’29 and his wife, Hilton Hines Ball ’97, P’29; Christopher Ball ’00 and his wife, Lyssa; and Sallie Ball ’01.

“I think this building perfectly represents values that were import­ant to Chris, and I believe she would appreciate that Founders Hall makes W&L accessible to all hardworking, capable students, removing financial barriers to attendance.” – Hilton Hines Ball ’97, P’29

Designed to offer an inviting and strategically located gateway to campus, Founders Hall will enhance student recruitment, help families understand W&L’s exceptional financial aid programs and serve as a hub for university events and conferences. The facility will be constructed on the corner of Washington Street and Lee Avenue, replacing the Early-Fielding building and connecting to Evans Hall to support larger university events through stream­lined access to food service and additional space. An anonymous lead donor leveraged a $10 million matching challenge intended to inspire others to support the project, and the Balls’ commitment is one of the earliest in answering the call.

“Founders Hall will be a great first point of impact for future students and their families as well as a streamlined gateway for these students to begin their journeys at W&L and forge their paths to lives of consequence,” Butler Ball said. “And thanks to this campaign and the generosity of many donors, the school is now need blind, expanding access to exceptional students.”

“I think this building perfectly represents values that were import­ant to Chris, and I believe she would appreciate that Founders Hall makes W&L accessible to all hardworking, capable students, removing financial barriers to attendance,” Hilton Hines Ball said.

Chris graduated from Westminster School in Atlanta in 1965 and Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, in 1969. She met Billy while at Hollins, and the couple married in 1970. At Washington and Lee, she served on the Parents Leadership Council from 1996 to 2001 and on the W&L Board of Trustees from 2001 to 2006. When Chris joined the Board of Trustees, fewer than a dozen women had previously served in the role. She was the first female to chair the Bolles School Board of Trustees and the first woman to serve on the University of North Florida Foundation Board. Chris returned to school in midlife, earning a master’s degree in comparative religious studies from the University of North Florida. She volunteered and gave back to her community through numerous avenues.

“Mom inspired us in a lot of different ways, and she was proud to serve W&L and proud that we went to a school that would instill integrity, honor and truth in her three children,” Butler said. “It was important to her that those tenets be passed along to future generations, and I know that Hilton and I strive for that with our children as well.”

Bulter and Hilton’s daughter, Georgia Ball ’29 is a fourth-gen­eration W&L student. “We are so fortunate to have an enormously supportive W&L network, and now to see our daughter stepping into her own experience here is special,” Hilton said.

“Sallie, Christopher and I grew up hearing the stories about W&L and about dad meeting mom at Hollins, and then there I was, on campus forging my own path at this place that was important to our family,” Butler said. “Georgia’s W&L path will be her own, and it is incredible to think about how each generation benefits from the virtues that the university instills in its students.”

Sallie Ball found her mother’s faith in the power of education and the promise young people hold for the future inspiring; she shared that she and her siblings were raised with the same core values that serve as Washington and Lee’s foundation.

“I try to live a life of consequence in small ways every day,” Sallie said. “A daily practice like the Speaking Tradition, smiling and saying hello to people, is a small gesture that can have a big impact. Those gestures add up for a lasting, positive effect.”

“I try to live a life of consequence in small ways every day. A daily practice like the Speaking Tradition, smiling and saying hello to people, is a small gesture that can have a big impact. Those gestures add up for a lasting, positive effect.” – Sallie Ball ’01

After graduating from W&L, she taught in Colorado before going to culinary school and has since served as a mentor and guardian ad litem. “I’ve done a lot of different things that speak to my curiosity, but the throughline for me is working with kids,” Sallie said. “I love helping kids find their best path forward.”

The Balls take their family’s legacy at W&L seri­ously: celebrating her 25th reunion this year, Sallie Ball is serving on her class committee, Butler is serving on his 30th reunion committee, and Chris­topher was part of his 25th reunion committee last year and is a class agent.

“I think we all feel a special connection with W&L and want to support the university in any way we can,” Christopher Ball said. “The shared values, the commitment to community and the courage to follow your curiosity — these W&L cornerstones were part of our lives well before we attended as students ourselves.”

Sallie and Hilton also belong to the Lettie Pate Evans Society, a donor recognition program that honors the role women have played as philanthropic leaders at Washington and Lee. The society is named for the university’s most generous benefactor, Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans, a pioneering businesswoman and philanthropist.

“I wish Chris and Lettie had known each other,” Hilton mused. “They would have understood each other, and I think there are a lot of commonalities in how they led lives of consequence, in their quiet determination to help others and share opportunities. Knowing that Lettie Pate was foundational to W&L and that Founders Hall will connect to Evans Hall — Chris would have loved that correlation.”

Sallie, Butler, Christopher and Hilton love to reminisce about W&L events, from football games and Parents and Family Week­end to the university’s 250th anniversary celebration during the 1998-99 academic year, at which Sallie remembers clearly her father being the life of the party. The Ball family’s strong bond with Washington and Lee has made a lasting impression, inspiring decades of dedication, service and leadership. “It’s the ethos of the school that brings people back, generation after generation,” Butler said.

“We are a proud W&L family,” Billy Ball said. “My father and my uncle went to W&L before me. We believe in the place — what it stands for, and what it does for people. It has been a formative part of our family.”