Back in 1991, nearly a decade before the Enron scandal broke, Kenneth Lay donated $1.1 million to his (and my) alma mater, the University of Missouri, to endow a chair in economics in his name. After many years and a legal battle (in which he tried to get the money back to pay his legal fees), the university has finally found a professor to fill the Kenneth Lay Chair in Economics.

Professor Emeritus Haskell Hinnant was one of the faculty members to speak out [against the chair] , but now thinks that Lay’s stigma is fading with time and the greater issue is MU’s difficulty filling the position.

“It’s a little embarrassing that they weren’t able to fill it with an outside person,” Hinnant said. “But the university has other embarrassments, too.”

I’d say.

–Ann Friedman

Ann Friedman is a columnist for New York magazine’s website and for the Columbia Journalism Review. She also makes pie charts for The Hairpin and Los Angeles magazine. Her work has appeared in ELLE, Esquire, Newsweek, The Observer, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and many other outlets. She lives in Los Angeles, but travels so often the best place to find her is online at annfriedman.com. Follow @annfriedman