November 4, 1999
Contact: John Scarffe, KU Endowment, (785) 832-7336.
LAWRENCE -- A $25,000 gift from a 1930 KU graduate will provide scholarships for students in the University of Kansas School of Nursing, Dean Karen L. Miller announced today.
The gift from Esther Abell Denton of Midland, Texas, to the Kansas University Endowment Association will supplement the Mary Hathaway Abell Scholarship Fund, established by Denton in 1980 to honor her late mother. To date Denton has contributed a total of $70,000 to the fund, which is already helping KU nursing students. During the 1998-99 school year, seven students received from $750 to $1,200 each from the fund.
"So many of our students have financial needs throughout their nursing education," Miller said. "The Abell scholarships make it possible for these capable students to become nurses."
Esther Denton received a bachelor of music degree from KU in 1930. Until her retirement, she taught elementary school in Colorado, Alaska, California and Texas. She was married to the late Harry W. Denton and has a son, Douglas Denton, a daughter, Jo Tuck, and three step-grandchildren.
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 Lynn Humphrey