For Friends of the University of K ansas â€˘ WINTER 2009 â€˘ kuendowment.org

When duty called:

KU Medical Center remembers

VISIONS OF KU

steve puppe

Dyche Hallâ€™s tower lends its beauty to the season. The building was finished in 1902 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

KU GIVING KU Giving is published three times a year, in spring, fall and winter, by KU Endowment, the private fundraising foundation for the University of Kansas. You are receiving this magazine because you support KU. We welcome your comments, suggestions and questions. Contact the editor at kugiving@kuendowment.org or 800-444-4201.

building a greater university

KU Endowment’s mission is to solicit, receive and administer gifts and bequests for the support and advancement of the University of Kansas.

winter 2009 I volume 2 I number 3

Features

DEPARTMENTS

A war journal: Memories of the 77th Evac

KU Medical Center doctors and nurses formed the backbone of one of World War II’s first mobile hospital units.

LETTERS

PRESIDENT’S NOTE Giving keeps us connected

EVERY GIFT MATTERS Show time

ACROSS KU

WHY I GAVE

By Joel Francis

SPECIAL INTERVIEW Financial guru Michelle Singletary

WAYS OF GIVING Get the tax credit

Prescription for change

GREATER KU FUND A tale of two women

AMONG FRIENDS

By Lisa Scheller

Officers of the 77th Evacuation Hospital

A major expansion for the School of Pharmacy will help KU meet an overwhelming need for more pharmacists.

KU Voices Election season on the Hill

PAST AND PRESENT KU’s first professorship

Pharmacist and KU alumnus Brian Caswell, Baxter Springs, Kan.

28 Kansas House candidate Tyler Holmes steve puppe

ON THE WEB Details on KU’s deferred maintenance projects kuendowment.org/maintain/

COVER: Memorabilia of the 77th Evac, held in the KU Medical Center Archives, includes a photo (foreground) of nurses Marion Cross, left, and Dorothy Downs amidst the bombing rubble in London, spring 1944. PHOTO illustration BY chris millspaugh

Photo gallery: The 77th Evac kuendowment.org/evac/ Watson Library: A priority project

lisa scheller

Our core values Passion for KU The generosity of alumni and friends influences the very fabric of KU, helping the university advance the frontiers of knowledge. We are dedicated to serving the university and helping it achieve its aspirations.

Partnership with donors Our donors empower us to accomplish our mission. We pledge to faithfully administer their gifts, adhere to their philanthropic intentions and respect their requests for privacy.

Perpetual support The long-term vitality of KU represents our ultimate, unwavering goal. We strive to wisely invest funds and steward property, with the goal of achieving the greatest possible assurance of long-term financial support for the university.

People-centered approach Our team of employees, trustees and volunteers guides our present and shapes our future. We seek to attract and develop the best talent, value each individual’s unique contributions and celebrate diversity as a strength.

Along Memorial Drive

WINTER 2009 I VOLUME 2 I NUMBER 3 KUENDOWMENT.ORG

CHAIR, BOARD OF TRUSTEES Kurt D. Watson President Dale Seuferling Senior Vice President, Communications & M arketing Rosita Elizalde-McCoy Editor Kirsten Bosnak Art DIRECTOR Chris Millspaugh Contributing Editors Joel Francis Charles Higginson Lisa Scheller Editorial ASSISTANT Sarah Aylward professional consultant Carol Holstead KU Associate Professor of Journalism

ways to support ku 100% of your gift benefits the area of your choice at the University of Kansas. Online Giving — You may make a gift securely online using your debit or credit card. Visit kuendowment.org/givenow/. Gifts of Stock — By donating appreciated securities or mutual fund shares, you can provide a lasting contribution while receiving tax benefits, such as capital gains tax savings. Real Estate — Your gift provides a convenient way for you to enjoy a charitable deduction based on the current fair market value of your property, and it can reduce the size and complexity of your estate.

Give by mail — Gifts made by check should be payable to KU Endowment and mailed to: KU Endowment P.O. Box 928 Lawrence, KS 66044-0928 Estate Planning — To remember KU in your will or estate plan, be sure to name The Kansas University Endowment Association (our legal name) as beneficiary. Our federal tax i.d. number is 48-0547734. If you already have named KU Endowment in your estate plan, please contact us so we can welcome you to the Elizabeth M. Watkins Society. We also offer life-income gifts that provide income and immediate tax benefits. Call our director of gift planning at 800444-4201 during business hours, or visit kuendowment.org/giftplanning/.

KU Endowment Communications & Marketing P.O. Box 928 Lawrence, KS 66044-0928 785-832-7400 or toll-free 800-444-4201 Email: kugiving@kuendowment.org kuendowment.org POSTMASTER: Send address changes to KU Endowment, P.O. Box 928, Lawrence KS 66044-0928

- FOUNDED 1891 -

LETTERS STEVE PUPPE

Fall 2008 Our last issue featured stories on the UKanTeach program for future math and science teachers, and on KU’s new Campus Heritage Plan, a guideline to help keep Mount Oread at its best through changing times.

You’ll find this and other past issues online at

kuendowment.org/publications/.

Ready to teach Thank you, KU Giving, for calling attention to the tremendous need for more math and science teachers. The UKanTeach Program now has 86 students participating, and we will have our first graduates in 2009. Our future teachers are teaching science and math lessons in 14 local school buildings. School districts are already hoping to hire these new, well-prepared teachers. If anyone would like to see our students in action, please feel free to contact me at jlariviere@ku.edu. JAN LARIVIERE UKanTeach Program Coordinator KU, Lawrence campus (via email)

In mom’s footsteps Teaching is hard work. I should know — I am a biology teacher at Dodge City High School in western Kansas. However, the rewards are, well, priceless. Sometimes all it takes is a moment when a light bulb goes on in a struggling student’s mind for a teacher to feel like she’s just reached the top of Mount Everest. There is an alarming need for qualified math and science teachers in Kansas, and the UKanTeach Program

Hoch Auditorium opened in 1927 as a performance and lecture hall and KU’s first basketball court. The façade was saved after the 1991 lightning fire and became integrated into Budig Hall/Hoch Auditoria, an academic building.

is creating a way to fill that need. Providing entry-level “try before you buy” classes, offering unrelenting support and giving university students a chance to experience teaching are by far the most proactive measures taken to address our need for teachers. Thanks to this program, my son, Michael Ralph, a senior at KU, is planning on teaching biology. Way to go, UKanTeach! The state of Kansas and our students will be better because of your efforts. SHANNON RALPH Dodge City, Kan. (via email)

to the basement as fast as we could, but not before we saw the flash, heard the thunderclap, and then listened for the sirens — probably all the emergency vehicles in town. (Is it really true that all the parking department’s records were lost in the fire, too?) Great reminder of why we’re all committed to giving — and committed to KU! KIP GROSSHANS Associate Director, KU Student Housing American studies and history ’75, MPA/JD ’81 (via email)

Memories from the Hill Congratulations on the excellent Mount Oread feature in the fall edition. Probably my best-ever KU job was working for the old Office of School Relations in the 1970s and giving campus tours on the Hill. Excellent photos — and I’m sure they will help inspire many donors to fund projects connected with the Campus Heritage Plan. One note: KU teaches “giving back,” and so in the summer of 1991 I was in Lawrence on a Habitat for Humanity roof as a sudden thunderstorm set the Hoch Auditorium roof ablaze. We got

Write to us

KU Giving, KU Endowment, P.O. Box 928, Lawrence, KS 66044-0928 Email: kugiving@kuendowment.org Fax: 785-832-7493 We welcome your comments on our magazine and invite you to share your KU experiences with our readers. Please include your name, address, email and daytime phone. Letters may be edited for length and clarity; we assume letters are intended for publication unless indicated otherwise.

KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

PRESIDENT’S NOTE

Giving keeps us connected MARK MCDONALD

Annette Bloch (left) greets Dr. Karen Kelly, deputy director of the KU Cancer Center.

| KU GIVING | WINTER 2009

laura wolfe

e often hear that we’re all connected. One action by one person can trigger another one, and this can cause a ripple effect felt by thousands of people. The act of one donor caused me to reflect on this phenomenon. You may have heard of Annette Bloch’s extraordinary $20 million gift to benefit The University of Kansas Hospital’s cancer program. What motivates someone like her to give? What I hear time and again from donors is that they had an intense personal experience that changed their lives, and they want to express gratitude. They also hope their act of generosity inspires others. For Annette Bloch, it was the experience of being diagnosed with breast cancer and receiving compassionate, competent care at KU Hospital. What she has done as a grateful patient will be felt by people all over our region for many years. The suffering caused by cancer in Kansas and western Missouri in 2008 alone is staggering: 25,000 people will be diagnosed with cancer and 11,000 will die. And, most alarming: The cancer mortality

rate in our region is decreasing at only half the rate of the national average. What would you do if one of your loved ones were diagnosed with a rare and often fatal form of cancer? Would you be able to pick up and move near a place like the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to have the best chance of survival? For most people in our region, the answer is no. This is what inspired recent donors like Annette Bloch, Floriene and George Lieberman, and Frank and Beverly Gaines to make leadership gifts for cancer treatment and research. Cancer has touched them all. And thanks to their gifts, more people in our region will be able to stay home and have the best chance of success in beating this disease. Their gifts may prove instrumental in helping KU achieve designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute — the gold standard in the field. I know most of us might never be able to make a million-dollar gift. But regardless of the amount, giving to a cause like cancer enables us to treat total strangers with kindness, expecting nothing in return. Giving provides us a sense of peace and well-being. What better way to feel connected with other human beings?

Dale Seuferling, President

EVERY GIFT MATTERS LUKE JORDAN /university theatre

In November, University Theatre and the Department of Music and Dance staged the American opera “Street Scene,” based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Elmer Rice, with lyrics by poet Langston Hughes and a Tony Award-winning score by Kurt Weill.

A night on the town More than 50 donors helped build a new fund for student theater tickets. As an undergraduate at Indiana University, David Ambler wasn’t much interested in theater-going. “I had to be pushed,” he said. Urged by his wife, Mary Kate, and his sister, Sharon, to give it a try (getting free tickets through his residence hall helped, too), he got hooked. Later, he helped plan a dinner for members of the visiting Metropolitan Opera. He rubbed elbows with the opera elite, an experience he carried with him to Kansas. Throughout his career at KU, where he retired in 2002 as vice chancellor for student affairs, he and Mary Kate took in the shows at the University Theatre. They wanted to give students the chance to go, too. As a retiree, David Ambler received two free tickets to each performance, and the couple

donated them back to KU for students. “Undergraduate education ought to prepare students for more than just a career,” Ambler said. He believes it should introduce them to the fine arts so they can develop a lifelong appreciation for them. The Amblers’ next step was to make free student tickets a permanent thing. To honor theater professor Jack Wright, they created the Jack B. Wright Student Ticket Endowment Fund. Wright, a faculty member since 1976, has been artistic director and director of the University Theatre. Students at KU and nearby Haskell Indian Nations University are eligible for tickets. Priority goes to students who have never attended a performance or who have received university financial aid. In April, Friends of the Theatre held a benefit auction and concert, raising more than $65,000 for the Wright Fund, with gifts from more than 50

donor households. The Friends and KU Endowment are seeking additional gifts to increase the fund to $100,000. Kathy Pryor, managing director for KU theatre and film, worked with the Amblers to create the Wright Fund. She said watching someone perform on stage gives people a way to reflect on their choices and recognize something of themselves in society: “Theater isn’t just entertainment. It’s the study of who we are.” This story’s coda speaks to David Ambler’s decades-long commitment to student well-being: This fall, KU named the David A. Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center in his honor.

— Sarah Aylward

SEND STUDENTS TO THE SHOW

To support the Jack B. Wright Student Ticket Endowment Fund, contact Jenna Goodman at jgoodman@kuendowment.org or 785-832-7417, or give online at kuendowment.org/wright/. KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

ACROSS KU KU UNIVERSITY RELATIONS

Hossein Saiedian, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, center, got a nice surprise in August.

Here they come, again Every year, at the beginning of the fall semester, it happens. A contingent of suit-clad administrators bursts into the classrooms of unsuspecting KU faculty members. They make short speeches, shake hands and pass out $5,000 checks. The “surprise patrol” congratulates 20 sometimes-speechless recipients across the Lawrence and Medical Center campuses. Their awards, the W.T. Kemper Fellowships for Teaching

Excellence, recognize standout teachers and advisors at KU. Now in their 13th year, the awards have been supported by $650,000 from the William T. Kemper Foundation (Commerce Bank, trustee) and the same amount in matching funds from the Greater KU Fund at KU Endowment. The Kemper Foundation originally committed to funding the awards for five years — but had too much fun to stop. — Kirsten Bosnak

A shot in the arm for Greensburg KU UNIVERSITY RELATIONS

The KU pharmacy students’ free flu vaccine clinic served two hundred Kiowa County residents, young and old.

In a typical year, KU pharmacy students help Student Health Services with campus influenza vaccination clinics. But this fall, 19 members of KU’s Academy of Student Pharmacists made a leap. They held a flu clinic of their own, traveling more than halfway across Kansas to do it. The students settled on Greensburg for two reasons: the hardships it has endured since the 2007 tornado wiped out 95 percent of the town, and the fact that it’s in Kiowa County, one of six Kansas counties with no pharmacy. To raise money for the vaccines, students sold T-shirts and cleaned Memorial

| KU GIVING | WINTER 2009

Stadium after football games. Donors helped with about $1,500 in gifts. Lifelong Greensburg resident J.D. Harrell, 86, was one of more than 200 Kiowa County residents who received free flu vaccines at the clinic, held Oct. 11. “A lot of us love this place and are determined to stay,” Harrell said. “And all the volunteer help — whether cleaning up debris, helping us build houses, or in this case, giving vaccinations — is extremely important.” The KU students learned how to plan and operate an immunization clinic and give the shots. They also connected with Greensburg-area residents.

“We’re all Kansans,” said fourth-year pharmacy student Neil Young, who helped plan the clinic. “This community has been through a lot. As Kansans and KU students, we need to step in and help them every way we can.” It was fitting that the clinic was held in Greensburg’s 5.4.7 Arts Center, constructed by KU architecture students during spring 2008 academic semester. “The architecture students built this building and used their specialties to benefit this community,” Young said. “The clinic is our way to help.” — Lisa Scheller

STEVE PUPPE

Boresow (second from right) made sweet sounds weekly this fall with fellow trombone players Travis Kochsmeier, Natalie Jones and Leslie Holmes.

Beautiful music friends announced their gift. It will benefit the Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training, which opened last year as part of KU’s Life Span Institute. K-CART provides services at the KU Medical Center, the Lawrence campus and the Edwards Campus. This fall, Boresow fulfilled her childhood dream of coming to KU. “We looked at other schools, but KU has a great music program, and where else could I be a Jayhawk?” she said. She was identified as gifted in high school and began her college career with 30 credit hours completed through advanced placement and community college coursework. A music therapy major, she took 10 (yes, 10) music classes during the fall semester. But it’s more than music that makes Boresow’s blood run crimson and blue. She’s a second-generation Jayhawk in a big way: Her father was one of 14 siblings, all of whom attended KU. “Every single one,” Boresow said. “They taught me well.” — Kirsten Bosnak

Dr. Gary Doolittle’s televised consultations with oncology patients in far-flung Kansas towns are about to go even more hightech — thanks to a $40,000 gift from the Northwest Kansas Area Medical Foundation in Goodland. The gift will add high-definition cameras and monitors to two KU Medical Center suites and to a partner site, Goodland Regional Medical Center. It also will fund a new technology service that provides access to radiology films and scans in a realtime environment, so care providers can read scans and X-rays while talking with off-site patients, just as they would in standard office visits. Doolittle, the Capitol Federal Masonic Distinguished Professor in Cancer at KU, is also medical director of the Midwest Cancer Alliance. The group connects the KU Cancer Center with hospitals, clinics and oncologists throughout Kansas and western Missouri. He said the new technology would improve oncology outreach clinics in Goodland, Hays and Horton. “The idea is to keep the patient in Goodland,” he said. “When you have cancer, receiving care close to home with the support of family and friends lessens the burden. We don’t want our patients to travel for treatment at a time when they are so ill.” — Joel Francis STEVE PUPPE

When it comes to class gifts, a bench or a mural is fine. But the seniors at Blue Valley North High School in Overland Park wanted to do something different. They pooled $2,500 and made a gift to KU Endowment in honor of their classmate, Elizabeth Boresow. Boresow barely spoke when she started high school. Diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a form of autism and can result in communication, sensory and social issues, she struggled with the noise and crowds of the halls. The staff at Blue Valley North helped her learn management strategies, and during her freshmen year, Boresow, a talented musician, found an unexpected means for self-expression: marching band. As a senior, she started a Circle of Friends group at her school to help students with autism. She won her classmates’ hearts through her perseverance, her music and her caring spirit. At graduation, she gave a speech before a thousand people — then her

We’re talking high-tech

From Kansas City, Doolittle consults with a nurse and a nurse practitioner in Goodland, Kan. KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

HY PHOTOGRAP LYNNE PRYOR

DIANE GUTHRIE

JOEL FRANCIS

WHY I GAVE

Bob and Gail Bowl

Ann, Rud and Ja y Turnbull Brenda Shiver

Parkinson’s research

s in 1996

Beach Center fellowship New lecture series Donor: Peter A. Boxer, Dexter, Mich., vice president of development at OtoMedicine Inc. and a former associate director of neuroscience pharmacology at Pfizer Inc. Gift: $15,500, with an equivalent matching gift from Pfizer Purpose: Create the Brenda D. Shivers Lecture Series at KU’s Higuchi Biosciences Center to help KU scientists and invited lecturers share the latest research on neurological and neurodegenerative disorders. The lecture series honors Shivers, Boxer’s partner, who graduated from KU in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in science education and in 1978 with a doctorate in cellular physiology. As a senior research associate at Parke-Davis Research Laboratory (now Pfizer), Shivers helped discover novel treatments for Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases. She suffered from multiple sclerosis and left her position in 1998 because of the disease. Shivers died in 2007. Why I Gave: “As a scientist who has spent most of his career seeking treatments for neurological disorders, I understand the importance of researchers sharing their latest findings with fellow scientists. Establishing a lecture series at a first-rate institution like KU’s Higuchi Biosciences Center will both further scientific research and honor a loved one.” — Peter Boxer

| KU GIVING | WINTER 2009

ing

Donor: Robert and Gail Bowling, Overland Park, Kan.

Donor: Rud and Ann Turnbull, Lawrence. The Turnbulls each hold a distinguished professorship at KU and are co-directors of the Beach Center on Disability.

Gift: $100,000, as well as a bequest

Gift: $26,000 Purpose: Create the Jay Turnbull Fellowship, in honor of their son, for doctoral students and researchers affiliated with the Beach Center. As a child, Jay Turnbull, now 41, was diagnosed with intellectual disabilities and autism. Since age 22, he has lived in traditional residential housing with support from family. He works as an office and clerical assistant at the Beach Center. Why I Gave: “We wanted to honor our son, who has multiple disabilities and who has worked at KU for 20 years and been welcomed into this community everywhere he has gone. Also, without the Beach Center and the opportunities provided at this university generally, Ann and I would have had much more restricted professional lives. So we wanted to give back on behalf of ourselves, as well as for our son.” — Rud Turnbull

Over all Giving November 2007-October 2008

Giving level

Purpose: To establish the Robert and Gail Bowling Clinical Research Fund for the study of Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. Robert Bowling is a longtime Parkinson’s patient of Dr. Rajesh Pahwa, the Laverne and Joyce Rider Professor of Neurology at KU Medical Center and director of the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Center. Pahwa helped pioneer the treatment known as deep brain stimulation, developed to control the effects of Parkinson’s disease. Why I Gave: “I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1989; by 2001 my medications were no longer effective. I was becoming disabled and began to search for an alternative treatment. I found only one that would relieve several major symptoms without creating a lesion in my brain: deep brain stimulation. I was amazed to find that KU not only offered the surgery but also had performed more procedures than any other hospital I had spoken with. That made for an easy choice, one I feel the benefit of every day.” — Bob Bowling

Individual donors

Organizations

$1- $99 $100 - $299 $300 - $499 $500 - $999 $1,000 - $4,999 $5,000 or more

17,140 14,008 2,496 2,741 4,642 2,431

203 335 98 144 348 428

Total

43,458

1,556

Charles Stan

sifer with Jam es

Graduate fellowship Donor: Charles Stansifer, KU professor emeritus of Latin American history, Lawrence. He was the first professor in the U.S. to teach a course on the history of Central America. Gift: $115,000 Purpose: Create the endowed Stansifer Fellowship for KU graduate students working on a thesis or dissertation about Central America. Recipients can be seeking degrees in any area of study. The inaugural recipient, James Herynk, is a doctoral student in medical anthropology. He is researching chronic nutritional anemia and its biological and cultural consequences in a Mayan village in Guatemala. Why I Gave: “Since graduate school at Tulane, I’ve had a strong commitment to Central America, a portion of Latin America often neglected by scholars. After teaching at KU for 42 years, I have a fervent sense of loyalty to KU, a leading center for Central American studies. Also, I consider every donation I make to KU a gesture of respect to my mentor, William J. Griffith, in his time the leading historian of Central America in the U.S.” — Charles Stansifer

Online Gifts

rmon in 1959

Humanities scholarship Herynk

n Cathy Sherma COURTESY OF

O HERBISON COURTESY OF CHIC

LISA SCHELLER

Yoshino and John Ha

Donor: Chico Herbison, former KU professor of African and AfricanAmerican studies, now a faculty member at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., and his sister, Tonya Farmer, a Kansas City, Mo., financial advisor and retirement specialist. Gift: $20,000

Cathy Sherm

ONLINE DONOR

Monarch Watch Donor: Catherine Sherman, journalism ’73, and Mike Ludwikosky, M.D. ’82, Leawood

Purpose: Create the John S. and Yoshino Harmon scholarships to benefit KU Multicultural Humanities Scholars majoring in African and AfricanAmerican studies, as well as students in American studies. The funds honor the donors’ mother and stepfather. Herbison and Farmer’s mother and father met during his military service in Japan. Their father was killed in an automobile accident, and later, their mother married John Harmon, a serviceman from Philadelphia. Herbison credits his mother and stepfather for instilling in him the importance of education.

Gift: $100

Why I Gave: “My sister and I wanted to honor the memory of our parents with a gift that recognizes the accomplishments of KU students. Our mother and father loved Kansas and were so very grateful for the education that their children received here. The scholarships are, as well, a way for me to thank some of the many KU programs and departments that have meant so much to me over the years.” — Chico Herbison

Why I Gave: “We all can help out pollinators, which is a lot of what Monarch Watch does. It’s not only research but public involvement. It’s so great that they are able to involve children particularly. I thought all this public outreach must cost money. “We can choose plants for our yards that are good for pollinators, and Monarch Watch helps people find out what these are. Fortunately, these plants are usually gorgeous!”

July-October 2008 Total giving: Average monthly giving: Average number of donors/month: Average gift amount: Largest gift:

$ $ $ $

81,288 20,322 145 140 5,000*

Purpose: Monarch Watch, an educational outreach program based at KU that provides information on the biology and conservation of monarch butterflies and other pollinators. Since its founding in 1992, Monarch Watch has become an electronically based program that involves more than 2,000 schools, nature centers and other organizations in the U.S. and Canada. An estimated 100,000 students and adults participate in monarch tagging activities each fall.

Why I Gave Online: “It’s easy; I do everything online. It doesn’t require a stamp, and I get the instant gratification of printing out my receipt right away.” — Cathy Sherman

*Molecular Bioscience Development Fund KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

WHY I GAVE FEATURED GIFTS

The goal is in sight photos by Mark McDonald

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius addressed the crowd gathered for the November announcement that the KU Cancer Center had been given the green light to apply for designation by the National Cancer Institute. The governor is a strong supporter of the effort to gain national recognition.

Two major gifts aid KU Cancer Center’s quest for national designation. This fall, two gifts provided the KU Cancer Center with additional leverage in its pursuit of National Cancer Institute designation. Behind each gift stood a woman who had faced a cancer diagnosis. On Oct. 14, The University of Kansas Hospital announced what is believed to be the largest individual gift ever made to a hospital in the

10 |

KU GIVING | WINTER 2009

Kansas City area or the state of Kansas. Philanthropist and civic leader Annette Bloch gave $20 million for cancer services at the hospital. Bloch publicly acknowledged that she had been treated for breast cancer at the facility this year. She said she hoped her gift would expedite the drive for NCI designation. The gift will expand and strengthen blood and marrow transplant, radiation oncology and breast cancer imaging. The hospital’s cancer program is blended with the KU

Cancer Center, and its cancer services are based in the region’s largest outpatient cancer facility, situated in Westwood, Kan., one-and-a-half miles from the main hospital. The hospital has renamed this outpatient cancer area at the Westwood campus the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Care Pavilion. The name also will go on the radiation oncology building on the main campus, south of 39th and Rainbow Boulevard. Bloch said the funds had been earmarked by her late husband,

Sebelius visits with Dr. Roy Jensen (center), cancer center director and CEO of the Midwest Cancer Alliance, and with former Lt. Gov. Gary Sherrer, chair of the MCA Partners Advisory Board.

Richard, co-founder of H&R Block, to assist cancer patients through the R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation Fund at the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. The Blochs have been long-time activists for improved cancer care, establishing the R. A. Bloch Cancer Foundation in 1980. “Our passion for quality and compassionate cancer care and for Kansas City has come together in this support for KU Hospital’s cancer services,” Bloch said. Earlier on the same day the Bloch gift was announced, the KU Cancer Center celebrated a $1 million gift from a Leawood couple for a new cancer research professorship. Thirty-two years ago, when Floriene Lieberman was battling breast cancer, no NCI-designated cancer center existed in the Kansas City area. She and her husband, George, traveled from Kansas to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for treatment. “There is a huge difference between having to get on a plane when you are sick, hurting and scared, and then staying in a hotel room, versus being comfortable in your own surroundings,” Lieberman said. “It makes a difference in fighting the disease.” The couple’s gift will establish the Floriene and George Lieberman Family Professorship, which will fund a leadership faculty position in the Phase I clinical trials program. The program tests new drugs coming out of the laboratory for cancer patients.

Annette Bloch with KU Hospita CEO Bob Page

Gift: $20 million

About NCI designation The KU Cancer Center announced Nov. 13 that it had secured a place in line to apply for designation by the National Cancer Institute. KU will formally apply in September 2011 and expects to learn whether or not it has earned designation by May 2012. It is currently one of 20 centers applying for the designation. The cancer center is expected to generate more than 9,000 jobs and produce more than $1.3 billion annually in economic activity. Today, 64 institutions hold NCI designation. These institutions:

Why I Gave: “I have been all over the country advocating for cancer patients, and there is something special about the hospital’s services, this facility and the people who work here. It is wonderful that patients in Kansas City can receive quality cancer care in their own community. I have experienced their skill and compassion firsthand, and I wanted to give them the resources to do more through these incredible services.” — Annette Bloch

• are recognized by the National Cancer Institute for scientific excellence and extensive resources focused on cancer and cancer-related problems; • are a major source for the discovery of the biology of cancer and of the development of more effective approaches to cancer prevention, detection and treatments; • have access to leading-edge clinical trials and special research funds available only to such centers. The Midwest Cancer Alliance Partners Advisory Board, a group of regional hospitals and research centers, advances the pursuit of NCI designation by demonstrating the collaboration of key research and education institutions. The board assists with strategic planning in an advisory capacity.

Floriene Lieber

man

Gift: $1 million Why I Gave: “It is my hope and dream that within a very few years we will be a comprehensive, NCI-designated cancer center and we will get the newest in the way of clinical trials. I base that hope on getting some of the best doctors and researchers. We already have many of them in our community.” — Floriene Lieberman

KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

Right: Tents were home, sweet home for enlisted men. Far right: Doctors and nurses performed surgery in makeshift canvas operating rooms.

of one of World War II’s By Joel Francis

rses formed the backbo ne first mobile hospital un its.

On the eve of U.S. entry into Wo rld War II, the War Department approved a plan to form mobile military hospital units to serve in a national emergenc y. Un der the plan, certain units would be affiliated with outstanding medical civil institu tions. U.S. Army Surgeon General James C. Magee wrote to Dr. H.R. Wahl, dean of medic ine and administrator of the University of Kansas Hospital s, as KU Medical Center was kn own at the time. Would KU Hospitals accept the affiliation of the 77th Evacuation Hospital ? The medical center responded. KU faculty and staff joined wit h School of Medicine alumni and area physicians, den tists and nurses to form the un it. Activated in May 1942, the 77th Evac was attached to Gen. George Patton’s 7th Army du ring the North African Campaign and treated troops in the European Theater, movin g to the point of greatest need over a three-year period. In November 2008, KU Medic al Center celebrated the 77th Ev ac with the release of a newly edited book and a docum entary film. For this issue of KU Giving, three members of the unit shared snapshots from their experiences: Dr. James Mc Co nchie of Independence, Mo., the sole surviving physicia n from the original unit; Dr. Joh n Shellito of Wichita, who joined later; and Louise Gilliland of Vero Beach, Fla., who served as a nurse.

12 |

KU GIVING | WINTER 2009

period Photos from the KU Medical Center Archives • PHOTOS of MEMORABILIA BY MARK MCDONALD

A war journal: Memories of the 77th E vac KU Med ical Center doct ors and nu

Evacuation hospitals were usually situated behind the rear boundary of the fighting division, out of range of enemy fire. All casualties passed through the unit to hospitals outside the combat zone.

n the spring of 1942, with just weeks to go in his rotating internship, KU medical resident James McConchie knew he would soon enter World War II. Where he would end up was in question. He had just learned that the 77th Evac, one of the first hospital units to be activated, had two openings. They invited him to join. “They had openings in internal medicine and radiology. I don’t know how they picked me, but they did,” McConchie said. He talked to physicians who had served in World War I about his options. “They said if I took internal medicine I’d see a lot of shell shock and pneumonia. In radiology I’d be learning something new. I agreed and chose radiology, because no matter what I chose after the war, radiology would be part of it.” Finally, McConchie’s orders arrived from the Army. It was official: He was to meet up with the rest of the unit at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. With only a month of radiology training under his belt, McConchie departed for basic training and a crash course in radiology.

d, Leonard Woo break at Fort from May Ten-minute d e unit traine Mo., where th 42 19 ly Ju h throug

“Our unit was the best thing the Army had as far as our function,” he said. “We had the talent, the organization and the fraternization. Everyone knew everybody they were working with. We knew what someone could and couldn’t do.” That knowledge and intimacy was based in the unit’s development and growth together at KU Hospitals. Before they worked near the front lines together, the core of the unit trained and worked side-by-side as Jayhawks at Bell Memorial Hospital in what is now Murphy Hall at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

Shock tubes and mud After landing in Liverpool, England, that summer, the 77th Evac was sent to Oran, Algeria, to treat soldiers injured in the British and American invasion of Northern Africa. They were stationed there from November 1942 through January 1943 and spent the first few weeks in a hospital in the city. “We had to use an old, nonshockproof X-ray machine that consisted of the X-ray tube and then several cables you pulled down from the ceiling and attached to the tube,” McConchie said. “These were bare wires. If you got close — about a foot away — the electricity could knock you across the room. We called it an electrocution device slightly modified for taking X-rays.” In early December, the unit left the hospital as the Allied troops continued to advance. They moved to “Mud Flats,” a field south of Oran and closer to the front line, and set

From top: Loading an ambulance • In the radiology ward, with James McConchie at left • Nurses on the drill field at Fort Leonard Wood in their hospital uniforms; no military uniforms had been produced yet for nurses. KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

The 77th Evac: In print and on film

The service of the 77th Evac forms a proud chapter in KU Medical Center history. Though personal diaries were prohibited in overseas armed forces and mail was censored, this chapter is a well-documented one, thanks to efforts to record it upon the unit’s return. The story of the 77th is told in Medicine Under Canvas: A War Journal of the 77th Evacuation Hospital, edited by Max Allen and published in 1949. In November, in recognition of Veterans Day, KU Medical Center released a newly edited version of the book, along with a film, also titled Medicine Under Canvas, created with extensive footage shot by 77th Evac physician Mervin Rumold. The film premiered Nov. 11 at a reunion dinner in Kansas City, Mo., for surviving members of the 77th Evac. Members of the unit also attended a screening in Wichita. Production of these new materials was made possible through gifts to KU Endowment’s Robert J. Gerlach Fund, which provides support for the 77th Evac memorabilia and projects connected with them. The book and companion DVD are available at www.kumedbooks.com. Sales proceeds will go to the Gerlach Fund for support of the ongoing preservation and expansion of the 77th archives.

up in about 100 tents. Fall rains began shortly before the move, and sometimes the doctors and nurses were up to their knees in water and mud. “We called that mud the ‘Oran Ooze,’” said Louise Gilliland, a nurse in the surgery ward. She had joined the 77th in New York and remained with the unit until the end of the war. “I remember on Christmas Eve I was going on duty, and a doctor had a record of ‘White Christmas’ he wanted to play. When I left to get it for him, I slipped and fell in the mud. I had to clean up again and change my uniform.” Hospital ships transported the wounded across Oran Harbor to the evac hospital. For the soldiers who needed it, radiology was an early stop after going through admissions. “When we were real busy, seeing up to 2,000 patients a day, John Bowser and I would work in shifts,” McConchie said. “We were the only two radiologists in the 77th. There were two X-ray machines with a full staff of technicians on each one. Then we had the Mole developing film.” “The Mole” was Giovanni D’Amico, an Italian volunteer who spoke little English. He earned

Nurse Louise Gilliland Oran, Algeria

14 |

KU GIVING | WINTER 2009

at the camp in

“When we were real busy, seeing up to 2,000 patients a day, John Bowser and I would work in shifts. We were the only two radiologists in the 77th.” — James McConchie

his nickname by reporting to the X-ray film-developing tent before sunrise and leaving after dark. The doctors used what they had on hand to keep the mud away and to keep the film tent dark enough to develop the X-rays. “The operating rooms draped sheets everywhere — that is, when they had them — to keep them sterile,” McConchie said. “When you went from tent to tent, you had to duck to go in through the flaps. When you got to our tent, you had to duck twice, because we were in a tent inside a tent.”

After D-Day In July 1944, McConchie’s field experience was put to the test when the 77th arrived at Utah Beach, the westernmost of the five beaches designated for the D-Day invasion, 30 days after battle. “We had to wait that long because it took them that long to get a big enough area cleared for us to set up our hospital,” McConchie said. “In the meantime, we were in England training, staying in contact with the local radiologists and studying.” Although the heavy fighting was over when the 77th arrived, the area was riddled with reminders. German concrete pillboxes jutted out of the sand, houses and roads were pocked with shell marks, signs warned of grounds littered with land mines, and machine gunners sat tensely, alert for hostile aircraft. “The lucky ones would walk in from the battlefield. We just took

World War II first aid kit, held in the KU Medical Center archives

care of what came in,” McConchie said. “The triage docs would go over the patients as they came in. They’d divide who went where. The extremely bad cases would be set aside so we could get back to the others.” John Shellito joined the 77th Evac shortly before the unit left England for Utah Beach.

But he got up during the day to monitor use of the tracheotomy tube. “The secret to good anesthesia is keeping an open airway,” Shellito said. “The best way to do this is to put a tube in the trachea and hook it up to an anesthesia machine or oxygen or whatever else you want to give them. This tube wasn’t something you could just go to the store and ask for. So I made do.” He made the tube by placing a catheter alongside a larger tube and using half of a condom as an inflatable balloon to seal off leaks. “I made another one of these a few years ago and sent it to a fellow at KU so he’d know,” Shellito said. “We guarded these very carefully. I didn’t want to have to make any more.”

One lost t John Shellito joined the uni

in 1944.

“It was the most wonderful hospital. I couldn’t imagine such a place,” Shellito said. “They’d been through it all and knew exactly what to do. The reason I got on with such a wonderful outfit was that they needed an anesthesiologist. I wanted to be a surgeon; they wanted an anesthesiologist.” The hospital was run in two 12hour, 7 o’clock-to-7 o’clock shifts. Because the other anesthesiologist had two weeks of seniority and first pick, Shellito got the night shift.

In Verviers, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge, the 77th set up inside a schoolhouse. On the day before the hospital was scheduled to open in October 1944, German planes strafed the building and bombed the urology ward. Although no one was hurt that night, the bombing became a familiar occurrence. “You could be a little afraid when the bombers went over,” McConchie said. “When I went to sleep, I always had my helmet right beside me. When I heard the bombers, I’d put my helmet on and hope. It was a rough way to sleep, but you kind of got used to it. There was nothing you could do about it, anyway.”

Anne Kathleen Cullen, the unit ’s only fatality, was killed in the bombing at Verv iers, Belgium.

KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

It was in Verviers that the 77th suffered its only fatality. Anne Kathleen Cullen, a Red Cross volunteer, was recovering from the flu on the third floor of the converted school. She went to the fourth floor — the top floor — to use the restroom. The moment she entered the doorway, a shell struck, and the room collapsed on top of her. Louise Gilliland lived on the fourth floor. As luck would have it, she was on another part of it when the shell hit. “I had my sleeping bag there with everybody else,” she said. “That night when I went to go to bed, I turned my bag open and found a large piece of shrapnel. If I had been sleeping in my normal position, it would have got me in the kidney.” The hospital in Verviers was set up for 1,000 patients, but the staff soon was caring for 1,400. The battle was only a couple of hills away, and the wounded were shipped straight from the front line. If the staff was overwhelmed, they had been treating above capacity for most of the war anyway. At least they were working from a bricks-and-mortar structure. “The way we were set up, there were rows of cots, and we had a desk with a box where we kept medications,”

16 |

KU GIVING | WINTER 2009

said Gilliland. “Patients came in with their EMT [emergency medical tags] and an envelope containing their records. We would feed and care for them, change their dressings and wash them if possible.”

Epilogue Cease-fire orders came in 1945. Back home, James McConchie and John Bowser, his fellow radiologist in the unit, opened a practice together. John Shellito switched specialties from anesthesiology to surgery. From 1973 to 1985, he was an associate professor at the KU School of Medicine-Wichita. Louise Gilliland continued her nursing career in Pennsylvania and Florida. Members of the 77th held regular reunions from 1945 until 2004. Robert Gerlach, an enlisted man who won a bronze star for streamlining the discharge process, planned many of the reunions. Surviving members met once more this past November. “The 77th has become like family to many of us,” Gilliland said. “I felt a kinship with this group and the good work we did. Even though there’s not as many of us around today, I’m happy to be there and see who shows up.”

Above, left to right: An enlisted man stands inside the huge bomb crater at the school-turnedhospital in Verviers. • Sgt. Donald McKenny reviews the wreckage of the urology ward after the bombing. • The 77th Evac was in MünchenGladbach, Germany, when cease-fire orders came on May 9, 1945 — almost three years to the day since the original unit had reported to Fort Leonard Wood. Below: The unit’s crest and movements were documented on its third anniversary party card.

photos by john jordan

Above, left: 77th Evac survivors and family members gathered in November in Kansas City, Mo., for the most recent reunion and a screening of the new DVD Medicine Under Canvas, which documents the unit’s experiences. Left: Louise Gilliland, James McConchie and Herbert Eldridge reminisce. Above, right: McConchie displays the unit’s crest. See more photos from the KU Medical Center Archives and the November 2008 reunion at kuendowment.org/evac/.

A legacy of giving

The legacy of those who served in the 77th Evacuation Hospital continues to help the KU Medical Center today. Several endowed funds have been established at KU Endowment in memory of the men and women who served in the unit. The Max Allen Fellowship recognizes an outstanding fellow in an internal medicine subspecialty. Allen himself once held the Edward H. Hashinger Distinguished Professorship in Medicine, established in 1961. Mahlon Delp, once chair of internal medicine, cast a long shadow at KU; his name is on a lectureship, an award for medical students and a scholarship. The Wendell A. Grosjean Memorial Scholarship has been assisting medical students since 1978. After returning from the war, Paul Harrington, the 77th Evac’s head of orthopedic surgery, developed a method to correct spinal deformities. Though he spent most of his career at Baylor University, he bequeathed his archive of papers, publications, photographs, drawings and notebooks to the medical center. Dr. Marc Asher,

KU distinguished professor of orthopedic surgery, worked with Harrington’s family to establish the archive. “After Paul graduated, he never really practiced at KU, but when it came time to give back, he gave to KU,” Asher said. “That’s the kind of loyalty these people had.” Asher, in turn, established the Asher Pediatric and Transitional Orthopedic Professorship in 2002 for the study of spinal deformities. The tradition of honoring the military accomplishments of Jayhawks continues today. One example is the Mary Lee Roby Jenkins Scholarship, created earlier this year for nontraditional nursing students entering the military, or returning military personnel pursuing a nursing degree at KU.

FOR TODAY’S STUDENTS

To support any of these funds, or to create a new endowed fund in the spirit of the 77th Evac, contact Stephanie Grinage at KU Endowment’s office at the KU Medical Center, 913-588-5552. To give online, visit kuendowment.org, hit the Give Now button, and indicate the fund or purpose you wish to support.

KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

PRESCRIPTION FOR CHANGE A major expansion for the School of Pharmacy will help KU meet an overwhelming need for more pharmacists. By Lisa Scheller

BRIAN GOODMAN

Looking forward: Under the guidance of faculty member Emily Scott (left), pharmacy students Sasha Sosa, Jacob Hadley and Amanda Batter learn about how molecules work in the body. The medicinal chemistry lab, located in the original part of Malott Hall, accommodates 27 students. KUâ€™s planned pharmacy building on west campus will include a lab with space for 50 students.

18 |

KU GIVING | WINTER 2009

Mike gullett

A very good neighbor: Pharmacist Brian Caswell (right), of Wolkar Drug in Baxter Springs, was there when resident Leonard Koehn needed him. As legislative chairman for the Kansas Pharmacists Association, Caswell lobbied for the state to allocate funding for KU’s new pharmacy facilities.

new pharmacists to replace them. The situation is a growing concern both statewide and nationally. By the year 2020, there will be a shortage of 157,000 pharmacists in the United States. Adding to the concern is the fact that as Baby Boomers age, their prescription needs will increase. As a pharmacist, Caswell knows there are barely enough pharmacists to meet the need now. “We’re an industry already stretched to the max,” he said. “How are we going to respond to a future that is going to require even more medications?”

KU Endowment must raise at least $10 million for the new School of Pharmacy facilities in Lawrence and Wichita.

steve puppe

f you live in small-town Kansas, your local pharmacist can save your life. Leonard Koehn, of Baxter Springs, knows. Koehn, 66, suffers from lifethreatening conditions, including emphysema and a seizure disorder. He remembers phoning his pharmacist, Brian Caswell, at 2:30 a.m. after his camper trailer had caught fire and his medications had been destroyed. Caswell, pharmacy ’87, was ready to help. “Brian didn’t hesitate to fill my prescriptions right then and bring them to my house,” Koehn said. “You can’t get that kind of treatment just anywhere.” Residents of Baxter Springs, population 4,600, are fortunate. They have three pharmacies in town. But not all rural Kansans are so well served: 31 counties have only one pharmacy, and six have none. The problem is expected to grow as more owners of community pharmacies retire. Of 3,500 practicing pharmacists in Kansas, 1,300 are over the age of 50. Kansas ranks among the 10 states where it’s hardest to fill an open pharmacist position. When pharmacists retire, there must be

Room for more students Caswell’s question has come up again and again across the state. Leaders at the University of Kansas and at the state house in Topeka believe the way to make more pharmacists, including small-town pharmacists, is to make more room to educate them. To do that, KU plans to build new, up-to-date classroom and laboratory space for its School of Pharmacy, the only one in the state. The Kansas Legislature has put money forward for the project.

Malott Hall, the school’s current home, opened in 1954 on Mount Oread’s south slope.

KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

Lawrence campus MALOTT HALL

MAIN CAMPUS

ALLEN FIELDHOUSE

IOWA STREET

WEST CAMPUS

NEW PHARMACY BUILDING

Artist’s renderings show the location of the planned pharmacy building on Lawrence’s west campus and the new pharmacy school in Wichita (inset), which will add an upper level to the School of Medicine-Wichita facility. Construction for both projects is slated to begin in 2009.

NEW UPPER LEVEL

Wichita campus 20 |

KU GIVING | WINTER 2009

THE EXPANSION WILL ENABLE KU TO:

• admit 190 additional students each year, including 150 students at the Lawrence campus and 40 students at the Wichita campus; • open up space in Malott Hall for use by the KU chemistry, physics and molecular sciences departments. THE SCHOOLS OF PHARMACY IN LAWRENCE AND WICHITA EACH WILL INCLUDE:

• a large teaching laboratory; • training suites where students learn how to counsel patients; • a suite of rooms for health screening activities; • a library with electronic resources used in modern pharmacies; • a model pharmacy equipped with modern technology for dispensing medications; • rooms designed to present lectures and continuing education programs back and forth between the Lawrence and Wichita campuses, across the state, and around the globe.

illustrations by cathy ledeker

FRASER HALL

Earlier this year, it approved $50 million in funding for a new building on KU’s west campus in Lawrence, and to create a School of Pharmacy in Wichita by adding a second level to an existing building at the KU School of Medicine-Wichita. However, state budget woes have forced the governor to propose a cut to that funding. To complete the projects, KU Endowment must raise at least $10 million in private funding.

Making of a pharmacist Pharmacy education changed dramatically in the 1990s. Prior to that, KU offered a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy, which required two years of basic studies and three years in pharmacy school. In 1996, the School of Pharmacy revised the program so that students would earn a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, also known as a Pharm.D. This takes a total of six years — two years of basics and four years in pharmacy school — to complete. The Pharm.D. program is more clinically oriented than the bachelor’s program. Students learn to dispense medications as well as coordinate with other health care professionals to ensure their patients have the optimum medication therapy. They begin counseling patients and conducting health screenings. They learn how to give immunizations and help patients who have special needs, such as oxygen or diabetic shoes. The curriculum requires different kinds of spaces than the basic laboratories and lecture rooms that worked with the bachelor’s program. The school also offers doctoral degrees in pharmaceutical chemistry, medicinal chemistry and pharmacology-toxicology. “We’re training students who will become pharmacists in our Pharm.D. program,” said Ken Audus, dean of the school. “But the other part of our program is that we’re training Ph.D.

scientists to become researchers who will develop the new and improved medications that will enhance life.”

Growing pains The School of Pharmacy hasn’t moved house in almost 55 years. In 1954, when KU’s Malott Hall opened, it was home to the School of Pharmacy and the departments of chemistry and physics. Construction of the 184,000-square-foot building cost $3.5 million. That’s when KU had about 7,500 students and graduated an average of 35 pharmacists a year. By the late 1970s, university enrollment had tripled, and the School of Pharmacy was graduating 70 pharmacists every year. Malott needed to grow. In 1981, KU dedicated a new seven-story, 115,000-square-foot addition. Three floors of the $11.5 million structure were devoted to pharmacy. Today, the number of pharmacy applicants is far greater than the space available to train them. This semester, KU enrolled a record 30,102 students. The school gets about 400 applicants each year. But because of space constraints, KU can admit only 105 new students into the Pharm.D. program. “It’s frustrating,” said Prof. Val Stella, who has taught pharmaceutical chemistry at KU for 36 years. For 20 of those years, he has served on the admissions committee. “You’ve got to cut new enrollment off — when you have a lot of other students who are just as highly qualified.”

Across Kansas Applicants come from all over the state, many with dreams of serving in rural areas, where they are desperately needed. A quarter of pharmacy graduates are interested in owning community pharmacies. Sixth-year students Eric Gourley and Melissa Rufenacht are among them. Both grew up in rural Kansas,

KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS IN THE HEARTLAND To help their pharmacies — and their communities — survive, pharmacists have adapted.

In 1995, Julie Perkins, pharmacy ’92, bought the pharmacy in her southeast Kansas hometown of Howard. Ten years later, when the town’s only grocery store closed, she bought that too, knowing that if she didn’t, people would start going out of town to buy everything — including prescriptions. She and her husband, an electrician, are raising three young children. The only pharmacist in Elk County, population 3,000, Perkins works five days a week year-round, except on the rare occasions when she can find a relief pharmacist to fill in. It’s a lot of work, but she’s not complaining: “I feel like I’m needed, and that makes your job worthwhile.”

PROFILE: KIOWA COUNTY, KAN.

PROFILE: COLUMBUS, KAN.

When an F5 tornado swept through Kiowa County, Kan., in 2007, destroying 95 percent of Greensburg, it took with it Kiowa County Memorial Hospital and the county’s only pharmacy. The pharmacist opted to retire rather than rebuild. The hospital remained open in temporary structures and will move into a new building in 2010. Mary Sweet, hospital administrator, is applying for grants to build a new pharmacy building. That funding would be easier to obtain if she knew a pharmacist could be recruited.

David Schoech, pharmacy ’82, has owned a pharmacy in Columbus since 1994. He thinks the new School of Pharmacy in Wichita will help draw more students from rural areas — and help rural Kansans, including pharmacists who are looking forward to retirement: “We work all our lives to build up equity and value in our businesses, and when we get to the point where we’re wanting to retire, there’s nobody to buy our stores — nobody to take them over and help support our communities.”

22 |

KU GIVING | WINTER 2009

Michele Hockersmith

Kezia Schwieterman, pharmacy ’06, grew up in western Kansas and wanted to return. When the Logan County Healthcare Foundation offered a 100 percent loan and equity in a remodeled building in Oakley, she accepted. Business has been good at her pharmacy — the only one in the county. After two years she’s close to paying off her loan and plans to finish buying the building next year. The best part of owning a community pharmacy, Schwieterman said, is that she can build a personal relationship with her patients: “I wanted to know the people who were walking in my door — and be able to connect with them.”

Mike Gullett

lisa scheller

PROFILE: OAKLEY, KAN.

Gavin peters

PROFILE: ELK COUNTY, KAN.

On rotation in Scott City, Kan., not far from his hometown of Leoti, sixth-year pharmacy student Tyson Mullen checks in with Jeanne Poore about a prescription.

Sixth-year pharmacy students Melissa Rufenacht and Eric Gourley don’t want to see small-town pharmacies disappear. They created an award-winning business plan to help new pharmacists buy independent community pharmacies.

health conditions. “I just need to find a town that fits me where there’s a pharmacist wanting to sell,” he said. Rufenacht said she may begin her career at a large chain. But eventually, she plans to buy a community pharmacy. It’s possible she’ll even follow the business plan she and Gourley created. Establishing a School of Pharmacy in Wichita will help KU train more new pharmacists from central, western and southeastern Kansas who can’t uproot their families to move to Lawrence. Sixth-year pharmacy student Tyson Mullen thinks Kansas and KU leaders made a wise decision to build a School of Pharmacy in Wichita, where it will draw on a pool of students more likely to be accustomed to rural life. Mullen grew up in Leoti, a nostoplight town 30 miles from the Colorado border. He dreams of buying

rod haxton/scott county record

Gourley in Lebo and Rufenacht in Ness City. Together, they developed a business plan to help new graduates buy an existing independent community pharmacy. In a nutshell, the new pharmacist would establish a junior partnership in which he or she would work for another pharmacist for six years, with a portion of salary going toward the purchase of the business. After six years, the junior pharmacist would own 50 percent of the business and would purchase the second half of the business from the owner. The 50 percent ownership could be used as collateral to qualify for bank financing. Gourley and Rufenacht’s business plan won third place in the National Community Pharmacy Association’s Neil Pruitt-Schutte Business Plan competition, held Oct. 11 in Tampa, Fla. As a result, KU’s NCPA student chapter will receive $2,000. Gourley looks forward to developing a personal relationship with patients and helping them manage medications and chronic BRIAN GOODMAN

or starting up a pharmacy in a rural Kansas town. He wants to play an active role in community life and take care of a town’s pharmaceutical needs. “In a small town, everyone knows where you live, they know your phone number, and occasionally, people are going to call you at random hours of the night,” Mullen said. “But if somebody has a sick baby, you’re going to be there to help them. I want my children to see me doing that.”

HELP TRAIN MORE KANSAS PHARMACISTS

To learn more about plans for the expansion or to contribute to the project, contact Ryan Harms at 785-832-7476 or rharms@kuendowment.org. Give to the School of Pharmacy online at kuendowment.org/pharmacy/.

KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

Steve puppe

Special interview

Michelle Singletary Washington Post columnist, author and NPR commentator Michelle Singletary visited KU in September at the invitation of KU Endowment’s Women Philanthropists for KU. In her syndicated column, “The Color of Money,” she offers straightforward money management advice. Before her presentation to WP4KU, we asked her to spend a few minutes sharing her thoughts about charitable giving. Many people contact you for financial advice. How often does charitable giving come up? Not often enough. Most questions are along these lines: I’m in debt; I want to buy a house; I’m getting married, how do I merge my money? Seldom do I get questions about giving. In my columns, I talk a lot about tithing, which my husband and I do. And when I do those columns, I’ll get questions about whether you should tithe on your net income or your gross. Any suggestions specifically for women on the subject of charitable giving? Without resorting to stereotypes, I think women still are the caregivers. Studies show this. We take time off work to take care of elderly parents or extended relatives. We are the front line for giving in our family. Imagine harnessing that energy and taking it out to the broader community. Charity begins at home, but it can’t stay at home. What general advice do you have, for people of moderate means, for making giving part of their financial plan — even in tougher times? To make giving part of who you are, it has to be a passion. You have to give where it means the most for you; then it

24 |

KU GIVING | WINTER 2009

After her presentation at the KU Alumni Center, Singletary (left) visited with Lori Reesor, KU associate vice provost for student success, and other WP4KU members.

won’t be forgotten in hard times. If you’re a graduate of KU, and your experience here was wonderful, and you’re using that degree to make money, that ought to be a passion for you. In order to be meaningful and lasting, giving has to be as important as taking your kid to soccer practice or making sure you take a summer vacation. Also, teach it to your children. They need to see you giving so it becomes a part of who they are as well. Did your grandmother, Big Mama — whom you describe as a great money manager — model giving for you? You know, that’s interesting. Yes and no. My grandmother was of very, very modest means. We probably technically were below the poverty level, although it didn’t feel that way. We were doing well to put food on the table and pay the bills. But what she did do was take us in — five grandchildren, all under the age of 8, some with medical issues — and in the scheme of things, that’s worth a million dollars. She kept us out of the foster care system, which would have cost the state money. I consider that a model for giving. I couldn’t do it, and I have 10, 20 times what she had. I take that as inspiration; had she not done for me, where would I be?

What are the key messages you plan to cover with our Women Philanthropists group? It’s hard when you’re preaching to the choir because they already give; they’re already part of the mission. So I look at it as more of a rally. With this group, it’s not just about the money. It’s about creating women who are leaders in their community. I want to challenge them to give their money but also create a legacy of giving. My speech is called “The Ripple Effect”: It’s about creating something that will continue to give. — Kirsten Bosnak

WP4KU NEEDS YOU

Join WP4KU — Women Philanthropists for KU — and help create leaders among alumnae and friends. The group’s mission is to increase the involvement and investment of women at KU. Reconnect, learn about new initiatives and enjoy great programs. You’ll be invited to all their events and receive a biannual newsletter. You can become a Friend of WP4KU with a one-time contribution of $100. To find out more, or to join, visit kuendowment.org/wp4ku/.

WAYS OF GIVING

Double benefit A new Kansas law gives donors a special tax incentive to support deferred maintenance projects. During the next four years, donors who invest in KU’s deferred maintenance projects will be eligible for a far greater tax benefit than they normally would with a charitable gift. A new law passed by the 2007 Kansas Legislature gives donors who contribute to these projects a state tax credit — 45 percent of the contribution amount — in addition to any standard deduction available. The credit applies for tax years 2008 through 2012. A tax credit differs from a tax deduction, which reduces only your taxable income. A tax credit is considered more valuable because it reduces the amount of tax you must pay come April — in this case, by almost half the amount of your gift. KU lists 52 deferred maintenance priority projects. They include such historic buildings as Dyche Hall, Watson Library, Strong Hall

and Murphy Hall on the Lawrence campus, and the Olathe and Delp pavilions at the KU Medical Center. Much of the work covers such basics as new heating and air conditioning systems, energy-efficient windows, upgraded elevators and fire-alarm systems, and ADA-compliant features. The largest project, now under way, is to improve about 10 percent of Mount Oread’s 16,000-foot network of underground utility tunnels, some parts of which are more than 100 years old. Alumni Sam and Carol Perkins, of Olathe, were the first KU donors to give for deferred maintenance. Their $5,000 gift was a win-win, Sam Perkins said: “It’s two of our favorite things, supporting our university and saving taxes!” — Kirsten Bosnak

Get the tax credit Here’s how it works: • Your gift qualifies you for a Kansas tax credit for 45 percent of the amount of the gift. • Make your gift to KU Endowment (suggested minimum, $5,000). • Give cash, securities or real property that can be quickly converted to cash. • Your gift must be received or postmarked by Dec. 31 of the year in which you seek the tax credit. • File the appropriate Kansas tax return form electronically.

HOW TO HELP

Visit kuendowment.org/maintain/ to give and to find links to sites with detailed information, including photos and KU’s list of priority projects. Or contact Kevin Kelly, 785-832-7408 or kkelly@kuendowment.org.

• The credit is available to individuals, nonprofit organizations, banking and financial institutions that pay the banker’s privilege tax, and companies that pay the insurance premium tax.

mike yoder/lawrence journal-world

• The amount of your credit may be carried forward for up to three years. • The program runs through 2012. Example You make a gift of $10,000 for deferred maintenance projects. With the 45 percent tax credit, the state of Kansas reduces your total income tax owed by $4,500. You also claim a federal deduction based on your income bracket.

One of KU’s first deferred maintenance projects: the underground utility tunnels. Jim Modig, director of design and construction management, stands in one of the century-old tunnels, left, and a newly renovated tunnel, right.

KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

GREATER KU FUND

A tale of two women The Watkins-Berger Scholarship keeps their memory alive.

26 |

KU GIVING | WINTER 2009

GREATER KU FUND

Through your gift of $1,000 or more to the Greater KU Fund, you will be recognized as a member of the Chancellors Club. Give online at kuendowment.org/greaterku/.

Watkins-Berger Scholars Qualifications • Graduation from a Kansas high school • 3.5 cumulative high school GPA • Record of community service and leadership • ACT score of 31 or SAT score of 1360 in math and critical reading Support • $4,500 per year for four years Funding sources • Elizabeth M. Watkins Fund • Emily V. Berger Scholarship Fund • Greater KU Fund

Steve puppe

In 1952, KU sought to correct an imbalance. The Summerfield Scholarship, created in 1929 as KU’s first merit scholarship, drew standout graduates of Kansas high schools to Lawrence — but only if they were male. Solon Summerfield, the donor, an 1899 alumnus, had described the scholarship as one that would help “deserving boys to go through the full four year course at the University.” Times had changed by the fifties, and KU needed an equivalent scholarship for women. The source was the Watkins Fund, KU Endowment’s largest single fund at the time, created in 1939 from the bequest of Elizabeth Miller Watkins of Lawrence. She had placed no specifications on her huge bequest — 25,000 acres of income-providing land. All was to be used as KU leaders saw fit. Creating the Watkins Scholarship for young women seemed fitting. Watkins herself had dreamed of attending KU but had to go to work at 15 after her father died. At the J.B. Watkins Land and Mortgage Company, she rose to an executive position. At 50, she married the founder. She built Watkins (1926) and Miller (1931) scholarship halls next to her own Mount Oread house, now the KU chancellor’s residence. There, she watched students walk to and from class. “My sympathy,” she said, “has always been with the girls who must travel uphill.” One of those students was Emily Berger of Halstead, Kan., who earned a chemistry degree in 1914, then taught at KU while working toward a master’s. In April 1920, about to finish, she died suddenly of an infection when her appendix ruptured. Her younger brother, Arthur Berger, followed her to KU. In 1943, he still

remembered her with such affection that he started a new fund in her memory at KU Endowment. For the next 20 years, he and his wife, Marie Harbeck Berger, made additional gifts. The Bergers were landscape architects, and Arthur Berger developed the concept for KU’s Memorial Drive. The Watkins Scholarship eventually became today’s Watkins-Berger Scholarship, which helps support about 50 students each year. Funding comes from the Watkins and Berger funds, as well as the Greater KU Fund. — Kirsten Bosnak

Watkins-Berger Scholar Megan Fowler, a junior in chemistry from Fredonia, Kan., participates in the UKanTeach program, aimed at graduating more math and science teachers from KU. She plans to go to graduate school, then teach high school in a low-income neighborhood.

AMONG FRIENDS BRIAN GOODMAN

Fall 2008 events 1

Chancellors Club members sang the alma mater at their evening gala on Oct. 24 at the Kansas Union Ballroom. The group continued their 31st annual celebration at an Oct. 25 brunch before the Homecoming game against Texas Tech. See more photos from these events at kuendowment.org/gala/.

2 BRIAN GOODMAN

KDOG PHOTOGRAPHERS

MARK MCDONALD

Chancellors Club Scholar Michael Rudd (second from right), a freshman in civil engineering, hosted his family — parents Daina and Dave Rudd and brother Tommy — at the Chancellors Club brunch.

A sold-out crowd of more than 3,000 gathered Sept. 5 for Treads & Threads at the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. The black-tie benefit, held annually since 2001, raises funds for cancer care at The University of Kansas Hospital. This year’s gala raised a net $754,500 for the hospital’s radiation oncology unit. Gathered for a photo, from left, are: Clark Hunt (chairman of the board, Kansas City Chiefs) and his wife, Tavia, honorary event co-chairs; Bob Page, president and CEO of KU Hospital; and Deanna and Greg Graves (president and CEO, Burns and McDonnell), event co-chairs. Find more information and photos at www.treadsandthreads.org.

4 MIKE SHEPHERD

Eileen Montgomery and 150 other mallet-wielding guests took part in the Croquet for Curing Cancer tournament on Aug. 23. Montgomery’s grandson-in-law, Judd Annis, Merriam, Kan., started the fundraiser in his backyard in 2001. This year’s event raised $5,100 for cancer research at the KU Medical Center.

More than 700 Wichita-area alumni and friends gathered Nov. 8 at Murfin Stables in Wichita for the 2008 Jayhawk Roundup. The silent auction and barbeque raised scholarship funds for Wichita-area KU students, including undergraduates in Lawrence and one third-year medical student at the KU School of Medicine-Wichita.

KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

KU VOICES

’Hawks flock to election programs STEVE PUPPE

During the run-up to November’s historic election, the staff at KU’s Dole Institute of Politics made the most of their opportunity to engage a record number of students through a barrage of campaign-related programs. It worked.

yler Holmes may not be your typical KU freshman. During his first semester, he turned up at the Dole Institute for every evening program, pizza-and-politics party and study group meeting — Democratic and Republican. Our staff is committed to maximizing student interest in politics, but it got to the point where I started to worry about Tyler’s school work and social life. Turns out, he was himself a candidate for state representative in Kansas’ 28th district! Now that’s civic engagement. But Tyler had plenty of company. We offered more than 30 different campaignrelated programs that drew hundreds of new students and community members to our iconic building on west campus. The semester began with an outdoor picnic and live music, followed by a get-acquainted program with this semester’s Dole Fellows. Afterward, the students (Tyler included) didn’t want to leave. We knew then that we had two special fellows. Every semester, with support from KU Endowment, we bring two Dole Fellows, political experts, to Lawrence for an extended stay. In choosing the fellows, we look for hands-on experience, enthusiasm for public service and the potential to invigorate student interest in politics. Each fellow leads a public, eight-week, not-for-credit study group based on a topic of his or her expertise. Both fellows invite guests to the study groups, most from Washington, including pollsters, fundraisers,

28 |

KU GIVING | WINTER 2009

Jonathan Earle

members of the media, even political lawyers. (Sometimes I think Midwest Airlines should give us a kickback!) Often we’re able to use the study group guests — who, this fall, have included legendary columnist Jack Germond, Republican pollster Whit Ayres and former “Crossfire” host Bill Press — for evening programs, as well. We do our best to keep things balanced and bipartisan at the Dole Institute, so our 2008 fellows were Ray Strother, a Democratic political consultant who has produced some of the most important political ads of the past 30 years, and top GOP strategist Joe Gaylord, who was the mastermind behind the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 1994. Their topics focused on political communication and developing successful campaign strategies. Donors, including our thriving Friends of the Dole Institute, help us carry out our mission to inform,

educate and inspire the next generation of public servants — like Tyler. He lost his bid for the Kansas House to the popular incumbent, but he took a quarter of the votes — quite impressive for his first campaign. I’m pretty sure he’s in this for the long haul. We’re proud to be a resource for Tyler, KU and people everywhere who want to be more involved in the politics of our community, state and nation.

Jonathan Earle Associate Director for Programming Dole Institute of Politics KU Associate Professor of History

SUPPORT THE DOLE INSTITUTE

Contact Shawn McDaniel at 785-832-7454 or smcdaniel@kuendowment.org, or give online at kuendowment.org/dole/. Learn more about the institute at www.doleinstitute.org.

steve puppe

PAST AND PRESENT

Big man, big idea KU arch iv es

DIANE GUTHRIE

Roberts

in the 19

50 s

It was the first gift of its kind at KU, from a man who had hoped to graduate 50 years before. He never finished his degree, but he wanted to celebrate his golden anniversary anyway. In June 1958, Chancellor Franklin Murphy announced that Roy Roberts, a driving force as president of the Kansas City Star, had given $200,000 to KU Endowment. The purpose: KU’s first endowed fund for distinguished professorships. Roberts, born in Muscotah, Kan., had come to Mount Oread with the class of 1908. His father died during Roberts’ senior year, and he dropped out one semester short of graduation to support his family.

Susan Kemper’s “Language Across the Lifespan Project” addresses ways that aging affects the processing of spoken and written language. She is among more than 100 KU faculty members who hold endowed professorships funded by donors through KU Endowment.

Known for his cigar, his rotund figure (which he thought made him more photogenic) and his unflagging energy for news reporting, Roberts guided the Star to five Pulitzer Prizes over 56 years. In a letter outlining his ideas about the professorships, Roberts told Murphy that recipients could come from any academic field and that it was entirely up to KU to choose them. “I do not even want to be consulted about it,” he wrote. Today, three faculty members hold the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professorship: Susan Kemper, psychology; Thomas Taylor, ecology and evolutionary biology; and Daryle Busch, chemistry. — Kirsten Bosnak

KUENDOWMENT.ORG |

Be the difference for KU A bequest to KU Endowment is a powerful expression of your faith in the future of the university. Bequests can benefit any academic or program area, while you retain the flexibility to update your plans as circumstances change.

Please remember KU Endowment in your will or trust. To include KU Endowment in your estate plans, the recommended legal language is: â€œFor the benefit of The Kansas University Endowment Association.â€? For more details, visit kuendowment.org/bequests/ Or contact Jack Schwartz at 800-444-4201, or jschwartz@kuendowment.org

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage

PAID

P.O. Box 928 Lawrence, KS 66044-0928 www.kuendowment.org

Lawrence, Kansas Permit No. 72

KU Endowment

Published on Mar 18, 2010

KU Giving Issue 6

KU Giving is published three times a year by KU Endowment, the private fundraising foundation for the University of Kansas. We welcome your...

KU Giving Issue 6

Published on Mar 18, 2010

KU Giving is published three times a year by KU Endowment, the private fundraising foundation for the University of Kansas. We welcome your...

kuendowment

Go explore