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Contact: John Scarffe, KU Endowment Association, (785) 832-7336.

Largest gift to KU Medical Center to create brain research center

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- The largest private gift for a building project in the history of the University of Kansas Medical Center will establish a new center for brain research, Chancellor Robert E. Hemenway announced today at a news conference. The new center will assist Kansas City in its initiative to become a national leader in life sciences research.

The gift, a $4 million pledge to the Kansas University Endowment Association from KU alumni Forrest and Sally Roney Hoglund of Dallas, will build and equip the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center. Their gift is part of a $7 million pledge, and the Hoglunds will designate other projects for the remaining $3 million at a later time. Forrest Hoglund is a Kansas City, Mo., native who has spent more than four decades as an executive in the oil and natural gas industries.

The center will also receive $1 million in state funding for equipment. The facility is expected to be in operation by the fall of 2002. The Hoglund Center will help scientists research such problems as developmental disabilities, autism, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and stroke, while also providing patients at KU Hospital with access to MRIs and other advanced brain-imaging methods.

One of the unique features of the center will be the capability to safely scan the brain of a fetus in utero, making it one of only three facilities of its kind in the nation. Known as magnetoencephalography, or MEG, this method of scanning and mapping the brain will allow scientists to study the earliest signs of childhood neurological disorders in an effort to diagnose disease and discover treatments and cures. The Hoglund Center will build upon the current effort by KU Medical Center scientists to compete for more federal research grants, helping Kansas City civic leaders meet their goal to make Kansas City a center of biomedical research.

"Establishing a premier center for brain research has been a priority at KU for some time," Hemenway said. "This gift demonstrates Sally and Forrest's long-standing commitment to KU, and we are deeply grateful for their generosity. This facility will benefit children and adults throughout the region for years to come." Forrest Hoglund said he and Sally were happy to be able to provide a center in Kansas City that could provide a strong research platform and help people suffering from a variety of brain diseases.

"The Brain Imaging Center can make good inroads into children's diseases, Parkinson's disease and a wide variety of other health-related areas," he said. "The center can also become self-supporting over time, so this was a good opportunity to provide the seed money to get it started. Not only will this gift build the Brain Imaging Center, but it will also be a good starting point for expanding biomedical research at the medical center as a whole.

"We want our gift to make KU first in brain research and in patient care," he added. "We want to invest in excellence at the KU Medical Center."

Forrest and Sally Hoglund have strong ties to KU. While studying at KU, Forrest Hoglund was a K-man in baseball, a Tau Beta Pi honor student, a member of Delta Chi and a cadet in KU's ROTC program. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in engineering in 1956, the same year Sally Hoglund graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science. As a KU student, she was a member of Pi Beta Phi.

A KU Endowment trustee, Forrest Hoglund is chair of the major fund-raising campaign being organized at KU. He served on the steering committee of the last major campaign, Campaign Kansas, from 1987 to 1992. He is a past vice president of the Kansas Alumni Association, which awarded him the Fred Ellsworth medallion in 1996. The KU School of Engineering awarded him the Distinguished Engineering Service Award in 1992. Sally Hoglund serves on the campaign steering committee. She and Forrest have provided support for many areas at KU. Hoglund Ballpark, the home of the Jayhawk baseball team, was named for the Hoglunds in honor of their gift to extensively renovate the stadium. They also provided funds for the Hoglund Fellowship in Engineering, and with Forrest Hoglund's brother Barton Hoglund, they supported the Barton and Forrest Hoglund Laboratory for engineering.

Forrest Hoglund worked for 20 years for Exxon Corp., eventually serving as corporate vice president for worldwide natural gas. He later became chairman and CEO of what was known as Enron Oil & Gas Company (now EOG Resources) and retired in 1999. In addition to serving as chairman and CEO of Arctic Resources Company, Ltd., a group proposing to build a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope of Alaska to the continental United States, he is chairman of the Board of Visitors of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Foundation and is past chairman of the board of trustees of the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Sally Hoglund has participated in fund-raising activities for several Texas philanthropic organizations, including the Arthritis Foundation of North Texas, the Dallas area Alzheimer's Association and the Family Place, a national family violence agency. In addition, she is a member of Pi Beta Phi alumni groups in Houston and Dallas. Sally and Forrest Hoglund have three children, Kelly Hoglund Compton, Kristan Hoglund Robinson and Shelley Hoglund Dee.

The Hoglunds are lifetime members of the Chancellors Club, KU Endowment's major-donor organization, and of the Jayhawk Society of the Alumni Association.

KU Endowment is an independent, non-profit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management foundation for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the oldest foundation of its kind at a public university in the United States and one of the largest.