Nearly 400 years after Harvard University was founded, the honor of the first building on campus to be named for a woman belongs to the late Ruth Mulan Chu Chao.

As a tribute to the life and legacy of the family matriarch (1930-2007), her husband, Dr James Si-Cheng Chao, founder of the Foremost Group shipping company in New York, along with the Chao family foundation in 2012 made a $40 million gift to the Harvard Business School in Boston to build the center, which will function as a hub for the 10,000-plus executives who attend educational programs each year.

"I am eternally grateful for the unconditional love, trust and confidence Ruth showed in me throughout our life and for always supporting and encouraging me in all our endeavors," said Dr Chao. "Ruth devoted her life to promoting excellence in education and enhancing US-China cultural exchanges. She embodied the spirit of the love of learning in this university community."

Born in East China's Anhui province in 1930, Ruth Chao lived in Nanjing and Shanghai amid civil war and foreign invasion before she moved to Taiwan, where she married in 1951.