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why i give | featured gifts Energy and Environment Center New building brings disciplines together “ Scott and Carol Ritchie, of Wichita, have continued their long history of support for KU. Why I Give KU Geology gave me a head start in my field of petroleum exploration geology. Carol and I met at KU, sent our kids here, and have enjoyed our continuing close relationships with many facets of the university. It is our great pleasure to support a new generation of scientists by helping provide a modern facility for their training and research. ” —Scott Ritchie A new Energy and Environment Center at KU will provide a hub for multidisciplinary research on energy and the environment. Plans took a giant leap forward when KU alumni Scott and Carol Ritchie, of Wichita, made a $10 million lead gift to support the project. The center will be a landmark: a 40,000-square-foot addition to Lindley Hall, the home of the Department of Geology, at the corner of Naismith Drive and Jayhawk Boulevard. It will create spaces for collaboration among geology, engineering, the Kansas Geological Survey and the tertiary oil recovery project. Moreover, it will bring together faculty conducting energy-related research in virtually all academic fields. The building’s design itself is intended to inspire innovation. It will have a green roof, deep daylighting and rainwater harvesting. Program spaces will be connected visually, creating an open-source environment. The center’s laboratories can be shared by multiple researchers and repurposed as opportunities and funding become available. Currently, the geology department’s high-end research labs are located on west campus and explicitly prohibit teaching. Notably, the new labs will support both research and teaching. This aspect alone guarantees better-trained graduates, even more so considering that these labs will be shared with the School of Engineering. The building also will include an adaptable auditorium to bring together students in geology and petroleum engineering for co-taught courses. Several collaborative spaces will facilitate small theme-based conferences, bringing industry and scientists from around the world to KU. The center is expected to cost $28 million altogether. Earlier this year, Chesapeake Energy also committed $5 million toward its construction. Scott Ritchie, a Wichita native, graduated from KU in 1954 with a bachelor’s degree in geology. He is chair of Ritchie Exploration Inc., a Wichita-based oil and gas exploration company he founded in 1963. He also is chair of Hallrich Company, which owns Pizza Hut restaurants in northeast Ohio, and president of Highland Ranch Company, a cattle ranching operation in the Flint Hills. Carol Swanson Ritchie grew up in Clarinda, Iowa, and earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from KU in 1954. She is a longtime Wichita community and civic leader, active in organizations that include the botanical garden, historical museum and symphony. The couple married three weeks after their KU graduation, and they have three children, all of whom attended KU. The Ritchies have maintained strong connections with KU. Both serve on 4-Wichita, which promotes the School of Medicine-Wichita. Scott is a Life Trustee of the KU Endowment Board of Trustees, and Carol has served on the advisory board of Women Philanthropists for KU. She is past president of the KU Alumni Association and has been involved at the state and national levels. They have provided generous support to areas across KU, including geology, KU Alumni Association, Lied Center, Spencer Museum of Art, School of Medicine-Wichita and student scholarships. — Charles Higginson brian goodman 6 KU GIVING | SUMMER 2012
From discovery to cure Fellowships will advance neuroscience research New fellowships at the University of Kansas Medical Center will spur research and aid in transforming discoveries into cures for neurological disorders. The estate of Mabel Woodyard distributed $1.25 million to KU Endowment through the Douglas County Community Foundation to establish the Mabel A. Woodyard Fellowships in Neurodegenerative Disorders. Peter Smith, Ph.D., directs KU’s Institute for Neurological Discoveries, which administers the Woodyard awards. “These awards were created to fulfill the desire to mold the next generation of neuroscientists,” said Smith. “By encouraging trainees to engage in an area of neuroscience discovery early in their careers, we advance the field for generations to come.” Mabel Woodyard was born in 1921 and grew up on a farm near Charleston, Ill. Following high school, she completed a secretarial course. In 1950, she became executive secretary and personal assistant to Nina Pulliam, wife and business partner of Eugene Pulliam, editor and publisher of the Indianapolis Star, the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette, and other newspapers. Her career with the Pulliams spanned nearly five decades. She died in 2008 from progressive supranuclear palsy, a neurodegenerative disorder that results in movement deficits similar to Parkinson’s disease. Her brother, George Woodyard, was her connection to KU — a professor of Spanish from 1966 to 2005 who also held a variety of administrative positions, including serving as KU’s first dean of international studies. His wife, Eleanor, said the neurosciences fellowship fund and the university were important to her husband. The inaugural fellowship recipients are Lezi E, a doctoral student in the departments of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences and Neurology; and Michelle Healy Stoffel, an M.D./Ph.D. student in the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics. — Lisa Scheller “ Why I Give Knowing what Mabel went through with a progressive neurological disease, George hoped that her estate would help researchers find a cure so others wouldn’t have to suffer as she did. ” — Eleanor Woodyard lisa scheller Eleanor Woodyard, center, stands with the first two recipients of the Woodyard Fellowships: Lezi E, left, and Michelle Healy Stoffel. KUENDOWMENT.ORG 7
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