April 27, 1999
Robert D. and Mary J. Reinecke of Philadelphia gave securities to the Kansas University Endowment Association for the Robert P. Hudson Fellowship. Their gift is intended as a leadership gift to kick off the Class of 1959 drive to raise additional funds from class members for the fellowship.
Hudson is a KU professor emeritus, endowment distinguished professor and Chancellors Club teaching professor of history and philosophy of medicine. The fellowship will provide support for graduate students in the medical humanities, which include history, philosophy of medicine and ethics.
The Reineckes are longtime KU supporters. Over the years, they have made donations for programs in the Department of Chemistry and the School of Medicine. They are life members of the Jayhawk Society of the Alumni Association and are members of the Chancellors Club, KU's major donor organization. Robert Reinecke, who received his bachelor's degree in 1955 and medical degree in 1959, is the Class of 1959 representative to KU Endowment.
Reinecke is a professor of ophthalmology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and director of the Foerderer Eye Movement Center for Children at Wills Eye Hospital, both in Philadelphia. He has authored more than 240 papers, chapters and books, and in 1993 was named by Newsweek as one of the "Best Doctors in America." In 1997, he received the Pennsylvania Academy of Ophthamology's Distinguished Service Award, and this year he is president of the Philadelphia County Medical Society.
Mary Reinecke earned a bachelor of arts degree from Kansas State University in 1951. The couple have one child, Karen D. Reinecke.
The fund will be administered by the KU Endowment Association, the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for the University of Kansas. Founded in 1891, the Endowment Association is the oldest foundation of its type at a public university in the United States and one of the largest.
Story by Karla Carney Menaugh