November 23, 1999
Contact: John Scarffe, KU Endowment, (785) 832-7336.
LAWRENCE -- A University of Kansas alumna has established a scholarship fund for the KU School of Pharmacy to honor her late husband, a KU alumnus and longtime Lawrence pharmacist.
Ruth Hammer Mitchel of Lawrence created the Farrell and Ruth Mitchel Scholarship at the Kansas University Endowment Association. The fund will provide scholarships to deserving students in the School of Pharmacy with preference given to those from rural Kansas. Mitchel asked that the amountof her pledge to create the fund not be announced.
Farrell (Mitch) Mitchel graduated from KU in 1960 with a bachelor's degree in pharmacy. He began his career at Johnson Rexall Pharmacies in Liberal and later became a pharmacist at Gibson Pharmacy in Great Bend and Lawrence, where he worked for 30 years. He died in March 1999.
Ruth H. Mitchel received a bachelor's degree from Kansas State University in 1957 and a master's degree in education from KU in 1983. She is a semi-retired substitute teacher in the Lawrence school district. The couple had two children, Mark and Miriam.
"Mitch Mitchel was a tremendous pharmacist, and more importantly, he was a wonderful human being and role model for all of us," said Jack Fincham, dean of KU's School of Pharmacy. "This act of generosity by Ruth Mitchel will perpetuate their work for all time.
"We are most grateful for what this gift will continue to do for our students in honor of the Mitchels."
The KU Endowment Association is an independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management foundation for the University of Kansas. Founded in 1891, the KU Endowment Association is the oldest foundation of its kind at a public university in the United States and one of the largest.
Story by Leah Conger