May 9, 2002

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

Cardiologist bequeaths $520,000 for scholarship and award at KU

Editor's note: A photo of Sherman Steinzeig is available upon request; contact kunews@ku.edu.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- To ease the financial burdens of medical students and promote excellence in cardiology, a retired cardiologist has bequeathed $520,000 for a scholarship and an award for the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Chancellor Robert Hemenway announced today.

A $500,000 bequest to the Kansas University Endowment Association from Overland Park resident Sherman M. Steinzeig M.D. someday will establish the Sherman M. and Alfred S. Steinzeig M.D. Memorial Scholarship. The renewable scholarship will pay the full cost of tuition, books, fees and a portion of living expenses for one first-year medical student.

Steinzeig, liberal arts '49 and medicine, '52, also has bequeathed $20,000 for the Study-Med Software Cardiovascular Achievement Award. The award fund, to which Steinzeig makes annual contributions, honors cardiology students, residents or fellows and can help launch a research project in cardiology.

"Medical school is expensive," Hemenway said. "With the promise of a scholarship that covers educational expenses for one year, the Steinzeig scholarship will give the School of Medicine an opportunity to recruit and support an outstanding student without concern for his or her financial resources."

Deborah Powell, executive dean of the school, said that the high cost of medical education and rising levels of debt concerned her and other deans of U.S. medical schools.

"I am so very grateful to Dr. Steinzeig for this generous gift," Powell said. "His bequest will help us meet the financial needs of our future students."

Steinzeig said the scholarship honors the memory of his brother, Alfred, medicine '37, who died in 1983, and the brothers' shared heritage and dedication to medicine. Alfred Steinzeig attended medical school first and practiced family medicine in Kansas City, Kan., from 1938 to 1975. Like Sherman Steinzeig, he lived and worked most of his life within a few miles of the School of Medicine.

Sherman Steinzeig served 27 months in the U.S. Army, which allowed him to fund most of his medical education through the GI Bill. He entered private practice in 1956 while serving on the faculty at KU Medical Center and on staff at three other Kansas City-area hospitals. He served as chief of medicine at St. Margaret Hospital from 1960 to 1970, then moved to Bethany Medical Center, where he directed the nation's first coronary care unit from 1970 to 1990. He also maintained a cardiology practice in Kansas City until 1990.

To develop and market the computer programs he created for teaching medical students, Steinzeig started the Study-Med Software Company after he retired. Study-Med had its greatest commercial success when the pharmaceutical company Marion Merrill Dow, now known as Aventis Pharmaceuticals, purchased thousands of diskettes and CD-ROMs with Study-Med's programs for distribution to physicians around the country. Study-Med has branched beyond cardiology to programs in pharmacology and nursing and onto the Internet at www.studymed.com.

Steinzeig's bequests count toward the $500 million goal of KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign in KU history. KU Endowment 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.