April 13, 1999
The gift to the Kansas University Endowment Association came from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation of Logan. Dane Bales, resident trustee of the foundation, said trustees are glad they can contribute to projects that make a difference.
"The Dane G. Hansen Foundation once again has helped build the level of excellence at KU," Shulenburger said. "Its wide-ranging focus and devotion to good causes have enabled the University of Kansas to extend its resources and service to the state and nation in many, many areas. We are deeply grateful for these latest contributions to the Dole Institute and the School of Pharmacy."
The Dole Institute, to be built west of the Lied Center and Bales Organ Recital Hall on West Campus, will house Senator Robert Dole's collected papers and other materials that Dole donated to KU. The Dole Collection includes photographs, audio tapes, videos and memorabilia documenting and highlighting Dole's career in Washington, D.C., as well as his youth in Russell.
The Dole Institute will also offer public service and public policy programs, which, at the senator's request, will be delivered in a bipartisan spirit. Issues to be addressed include taxes, disability policy, agriculture, welfare, the judiciary, communications, and international affairs. The institute should be completed in 2001.
The Dole Institute is also an important priority for the Hansen Foundation because Bob Dole has been a close friend of the Hansen family for many years, Bales said.
"We felt it was appropriate for the Hansen Foundation to help kick off the fund-raising program for the Dole Institute," he added.
The gift to the Pharmacology and Toxicology Department will allow the Laboratories for Neurobiology and Neurogenetics to invest in the state-of-the-art technology and post-doctoral research associates needed to advance Alzheimer's disease research.
The purchase of instrumentation will enable KU professors Mary Lou Michaelis and Elias Michaelis to establish a new and efficient gene-screening method to identify genes related to the aging process. The knowledge gathered from this research will also provide researchers at KU and other institutions with information relating to disease.
"The foundation is certainly interested in and dedicated to providing for research that helps people in Kansas," Bales said.
The Hansen Foundation was established in 1965 following the death of Dane G. Hansen, the son of Danish immigrants, who left most of his estate to the foundation. Born in 1883, Hansen entered the mercantile business with his parents and later developed interests in ranching, road and bridge construction and oil. In the 1930s, he become one of the largest independent oil producers in Kansas. Hansen served in the administration of President Eisenhower and later became a trustee of the Eisenhower Foundation. He was also active in civic affairs in Logan.
A longtime supporter of KU, the Hansen Foundation has contributed to the Museum of Natural History and the schools of business, fine arts and medicine. The foundation also supports several scholarship funds, including a fine arts scholarship in memory of Kate Hansen, a sister of Dane Hansen, who received a bachelor of fine arts degree from KU in 1913.
The gift will be administered by the KU Endowment Association, an independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fund-management foundation for the University of Kansas. Founded in 1891, the KU Endowment Association is the oldest foundation of its type at a public university in the United States and one of the largest.
Story by Caryn Goldberg