July 23, 2002

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

Medicine alumnus memorializes KU professor with $1M bequest

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A University of Kansas professor and physician known as much for his symphonies and mastery of foreign languages as his clinical research and teaching will be memorialized through an endocrinology professorship in his name.

Named for the late Robert Bolinger M.D., the professorship will be established through a $1 million bequest from one of his former students, J. "Jay" Harold Morris Jr. M.D., and Morris' wife, Mary Ann, of Lee's Summit, Mo. The Dr. Robert E. Bolinger Professorship someday will provide a salary stipend for a scholar who will research and teach the disorders of the endocrine system and its hormones. Endocrinology is a division of the KU School of Medicine's Department of Internal Medicine.

The couple's bequest to KU Endowment counts toward the $500 million goal of KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign in KU history.

Jay Morris described Bolinger, liberal arts '40 and medicine '43, as a humble Renaissance man who exhibited the characteristics of an ideal professor and physician better than anyone Morris has ever met.

"When I was a medical student at KU, he stood out to me as representative of a hero -- a clinical investigator who demonstrated excellence in teaching, research and patient care," he said. "He had such a gifted mind. He was the mentor I wanted to follow because he placed the student first when teaching, the truth first when doing research and the patient first when giving patient care."

Bolinger, who died in July 2001, was the founding director of the Clinical Research Center at the KU Medical Center and a director of the metabolism, endocrinology and genetics division. He was considered a pioneer in many areas, including insulin metabolism, diabetes, renal dialysis and the use of computers in medicine. Additionally, he mastered five languages, including Russian, which enabled him to be the translator for Russian patients. He wrote two symphonies, one of which was performed by Kansas City's Medical Arts Symphony.

"Dr. Bolinger was a dedicated member of our faculty who spent his entire professional career teaching and inspiring KU students," said KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway. "He was an exemplary professor whose love of learning was infectious. On behalf of the university, I wish to thank Dr. and Mrs. Morris for their outstanding generosity in making this bequest in his honor."

KU School of Medicine Executive Dean Deborah Powell said the professorship would be an appropriate memorial.

"Through his work both inside and outside the sphere of medicine, Dr. Bolinger touched the lives of generations of KU students," she said. "This bequest from the Morrises is a promise to future KU medical students that we will attract and retain a scholar worthy of Dr. Bolinger's legacy."

Jay Morris, chemistry '52, earned a bachelor's degree in medicine from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1954 and then returned to KU, where he earned a medical degree in 1956, followed by a KU medical internship. After serving as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1957 to 1959, he completed a medical residency and a fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at KU.

The Kansas City native spent 36 years in private practice at the Independence Sanitarium, now known as the Independence Regional Health Center. At the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Morris was director of Continuing Medical Education from 1970 to 1985. He is a past governor of and a past regent of the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine and is a former president of the Missouri Society of Internal Medicine.

Mary Ann Morris earned an associate's degree in fashion design in 1953 at Stephens College in Columbia, Mo. She is a former airline attendant and fashion model who is now president of Mary Ann's Fashion Boutique in Independence. She and her husband have two children, Janet and Robert.

Jay Morris said that in addition to his desire to give back to KU, he funded the professorship because he wants to help the university find an extraordinary professor.

"'That would be my goal,' I told Dean Powell. 'I'd like you to find the next Dr. Bolinger,'" he said.

The Kansas University Endowment Association is conducting KU First on behalf of KU through 2004 to raise funds for scholarships, fellowships, professorships, capital projects and program support. KU Endowment is an independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university and one of the largest.