July 11,2001

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

Gift creates business scholarships at KU

LAWRENCE -- A University of Kansas business alumnus who delayed college to serve in World War II and his wife have made a $25,000 gift for scholarships for the KU School of Business, Dean William L. Fuerst announced today.

Richard L. and Beulah M. Hofmann of Lincoln, Neb., made the contribution to the Kansas University Endowment Association to create a scholarship fund in his name. The scholarship will be awarded to business students who graduated from Clay Center Community High School in Kansas, which Hofmann attended. Preference will be given to students who are in the Division of Accounting and Information Systems.

"We appreciate Mr. Hofmann's generosity and support for deserving students," Dean Fuerst said. "He serves as a wonderful example of a successful entrepreneur for our students."

With the gift, Richard Hofmann hopes to help others.

"I got a later start than most students, but I had a good experience at KU," he said. "With education getting higher priced, I thought scholarships were an important way to help."

After he graduated from high school in 1937, Hofmann served in the Air Force, where he earned the rank of staff sergeant. During World War II, he was stationed in Sicily and mainland Italy. He also served in England during the Korean War.

In 1951, with support from the GI bill, he attended KU. After he graduated in 1955 with a degree in business, he took a position with Maytag Corporation in Newton, Iowa. There he met and married his wife, Beulah Still Hofmann. He purchased a Midas auto service franchise in Lincoln in 1959 that became one of the company's most successful locations. He retired in 1983.

The Hofmanns are members of the business school's Deans Club and of KU Endowment's Elizabeth Watkins Society, which honors donors of planned gifts.

The Kansas University Endowment Association is an independent, non-profit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for the University of Kansas. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university and one of the largest.