Warrington College of Business mourns the loss of renowned professor and benefactor Eugene F. Brigham

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – It is with deep sadness that the University of Florida Warrington College of Business shares the loss of former faculty member and finance education supporter Dr. Eugene F. Brigham. The author of one of the best-selling finance textbooks passed at the age of 94.

“Gene Brigham’s tremendous dedication to finance education at the University of Florida has left an indelible mark on generations of students and the college itself,” said Saby Mitra, Dean of the Warrington College of Business. “His scholarship, teaching and textbooks brought tremendous recognition to UF and Warrington. Gene was an exceptional person, and UF is forever changed because he chose to join the faculty more than 50 years ago.”

Brigham began his career at the University of Florida as a finance professor in 1971. He served in his role at Warrington for more than 30 years, during which time he also co-founded the Public Utility Research Center (PURC) to enhance the understanding of issues facing energy, telecommunications, water utilities and their regulatory agencies. 

Brigham was a natural at teaching complex topics and had a penchant for using real-world examples that students could relate to. This ability prompted him to create a family of top-selling finance textbooks, including “Fundamentals of Financial Management,” “Intermediate Financial Management,” and “Financial Management Theory and Practice.” His books, some of which are now in their 17th editions, are used at more than 1,000 colleges worldwide and have been translated into 11 languages.

“Fundamentals of Financial Management” is co-authored by Joel Houston, Eugene F. Brigham Chair in Finance. Houston noted that with his textbook writing, Brigham cracked the code on how to author a best-seller, and he’s proud to have learned the formula of “painstaking attention to detail, exacting knowledge of the latest in business theory and practice, and a focus on clarity and simplification.”

“People claim it’s being smart, but I think it’s luck,” Brigham said of his bevy of successful textbooks.

In 2020, Brigham committed $20 million to the Warrington College of Business to enhance finance undergraduates’ experience. It is Warrington’s fourth largest gift and just one of Brigham’s numerous investments in the college. More recently, he created the Brigham Finance Excellence Fund to support development, networking and leadership opportunities for undergraduate finance students. With his 2020 investment and many other significant contributions over the years, the college named its finance department in his honor.

“Gene’s generosity that led to the naming of the Eugene F. Brigham Finance, Insurance and Real Estate Department and the establishment of the Finance Professional Development Program has changed the lives of countless students and our faculty,” Mitra said. “Our 300+ finance graduates every year have access to opportunities they would not have had otherwise.”

“I want to see our students getting hired by top companies and then moving up to the top levels in those companies,” Brigham said in 2020. “For this to happen, Florida must be ranked as a top school to attract recruiters from top companies, and our students must get an educational background equal to or better than they could get at any other school in the country. The plans the dean and the finance faculty have developed can help get this job done, and my donation should help make this goal a reality.”

Read Brigham’s obituary to learn more about his extraordinary life as a contributor to business higher education.