February 7, 2002

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

Firm establishes scholarship fund at KU in memory of prominent KC architect

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas City, Mo., firm has given $10,000 to create a scholarship for University of Kansas architecture students in memory of the principal architect of the Kansas City International Airport.

The gift from Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell Architects Inc. to the Kansas University Endowment Association will establish the R. Bruce Patty Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship will be awarded annually to undergraduate or graduate students in the KU School of Architecture and Urban Design.

R. Bruce Patty, architecture '58, was a founding partner in 1970 of BNIM, which was then called Patty Berkebile Nelson Love. In addition to his work as the designer and principal architect of Kansas City's horseshoe-shaped airport terminals, Patty was project principal on Bartle Hall and the Truman State Office Building in Jefferson City, Mo. In 1974, he was elected national president of the American Institute of Architects. Patty died in 1998.

KU Endowment 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.