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An unending aria
The late Elisabeth Collins, M.D., wanted her estate
and that of her late husband, Dean T. Collins, M.D., to
benefit students at KU, his alma mater. Their $1.7 million
estate gift established the Dean T. and Elisabeth
Collins Scholarship to provide full support for KU students
to study longer-term — a semester or a year — at
an institution of higher education in Germany. While
the scholarship is open to students of various majors,
its focus is on opera students.
From vastly different beginnings, both became
psychiatrists. Elisabeth grew up in Germany during
World War II, and Dean was reared south of Junction
City, Kan. After he earned an M.D. from KU in 1955,
he served a residency at the University of Tübingen,
where Elisabeth was his supervisory physician.
After Dean returned to Kansas, they corresponded
by mail, and in 1959, he convinced her to cross the
ocean and become his wife. In Topeka, Dean was a
staff psychiatrist at the Menninger Clinic; Elisabeth
was on the staff of Kansas State Hospital and other
institutions. Both also later worked in private practice.
They shared a lifelong love of opera, attending as
many as 150 operas a year and visiting all the world’s
major opera houses several times. Elisabeth’s native
Germany lay at the heart of their love of opera, and
they felt KU opera students would benefit from
extended study, absorbing the language and culture.
— Lisa Scheller
She built it,
they have come
Beth Whittaker, head of the Kenneth Spencer
Research Library, offers this update on the
story in our previous issue about the remodeled
Marilyn Stokstad Reading Room at the library:
“I’m happy to report that, since remodeling
the entryway and creating the new reading
room, we are already seeing a major increase in
visitors — nearly double the number of visitors
this semester over last — and returning visitors
seem as thrilled as the Spencer staff with the
improvements, all of which were made possible
by Dr. Stokstad’s generous gift.”
bottom: brian goodman/top (2): courtesy of cheryl collins
16 KU GIVING | SUMMER 2012