A native of Rockingham was recently honored for his philanthropy by having a college on the campus of a North Carolina university named after him.

Wingate University announced Monday it will name its College of Health Sciences, and the three-story building it will be located in, in honor of Family Dollar founder and foundation financier Leon Levine.

The 67,000 square-foot Levine College of Health Sciences will house the school’s Pharmacy Program and the Physician Assistant Studies Program.

The new facility will enable the university to serve more students, as well as offer new programs in health sciences in the future, according to Wingate University President Dr. Jerry McGee.

“We take very seriously our commitment to provide well-trained health care professionals for the citizens of our region,” McGee said. “Levine’s support will provide great impetus to our efforts. He is one of our most distinguished alums and we are pleased to honor his life’s work by naming the College of Health Sciences in his honor.”

“Wingate has always been an important place for me and my family,” Levine, an alumnus of the university, said. “Dr. McGee is an impressive president and certainly has the university moving in the right direction. Its growth during his tenure has been strong, including the remarkable pharmacy program. We are proud to partner with a program that fits so well with the mission of our Foundation.”

Levine, the founder of the Family Dollar chain of stores, and the Chairman of the Board of the Leon Levine Foundation, is a native of Rockingham, where he was born in 1937.

He launched Family Dollar in 1959, which is now run by his son Howard, and began the Leon Levine Foundation in 1980.

Levine’s ties to Wingate stretch back to 1956, when he attended what was then Wingate College, according to the same release. He attended classes in the mornings while running a small bedspread manufacturing business called Union Craft Company in the afternoons with his brother Sherman.

Aside from its support of WIngate University, the Foundation has also worked closely with several other charitable causes over the past 30 years, according to Levine Foundation Vice President Tom Lawrence.

“There are four major focus areas of the foundation since its founding in 1980, including health care, education, religion and human services,” Lawrence said. “Other major charities we are involved with include the Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte.”

He also pointed out the Matthews campus of the Central Piedmont Community College is named after Levine, and Levine has been a staunch supporter of Richmond Community College through the Richmond Community College Foundation.

The WIngate college will be located in a new three-story building which will also bear the Levine family name, and will be located near the university’s main campus.

The project is expected to cost in excess of $16 million, and the doors of the health sciences facility are expected to open by Fall 2011, according to McGee.

“The new facility will significantly expand the pharmacy program capacity from 72 students to 90 students per class, and the Physician Assistant program from 20 students to 50 students per class,” a release from the college reads. “Features will include teaching auditoriums, lab space, classrooms, small group study areas, a library and office space.”

Wingate University started the School of Pharmacy in 2003, and graduated its first class of 56 pharmacy students in 2007. One-hundred percent of the 2008 pharmacy graduates passed the national licensing exam.

The Physician’s Assistant program’s inaugural class of 20 students began its studies in 2008. The 27 month program prepares students for one of the fastest growing professions in the United States with the need for physicians assistants nationwide expected to increase by 50 percent by 2014.