Dallas couple's $1M pledge will help expand library at KU School of Law

LAWRENCE -- The University of Kansas School of Law library is home to a treasure trove of statutes, cases and legal material that can provide everything from the answer to how much a horse cost in 1856 to information useful in defending an elderly client against age discrimination, said Joyce McCray Pearson, library director.

Now with the help of the largest cash gift in the school's history, the library's collection will expand. Law alumnus Douglas D. Wheat and his wife, Laura, have pledged $1 million to the Kansas University Endowment Association to establish an endowed fund to support the school and in particular the library. In honor of the Dallas couple's gift, the library will be named the Wheat Law Library.

"The KU School of Law has prepared attorneys general, appellate judges, state Supreme Court justices and many fine attorneys who have served the state of Kansas, but state support for the school is limited," said KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway. "We are excited to have such a generous pledge to help us continue the tradition of excellence at the law school."

KU Law Dean Stephen McAllister said the gift, which already is assisting the school with library acquisitions, will provide critical support for the school.

"The library's collection is a measure of the school's quality," he said. "This endowment will help us especially with library acquisitions, one of the largest portions of a library's budget. In addition, we will be able to support areas of greatest need in the school, including scholarships, materials and resources for faculty and state-of-the-art equipment."

With more than 370,000 volumes, the Wheat Library is the largest law library in the state. Its holdings include every statute ever passed by the Kansas Legislature; hundreds of years of law from regions such as South America, Europe and the Pacific Rim; federal statutes; and resources pertaining to specific legal areas such as elder law, constitutional law and tribal law.

Among its more unique holdings are the papers of KU Professor Emeritus Paul Wilson, who represented Kansas in the landmark case Brown v. Topeka Board of Education. The volumes of Kansas statutes include the "Bogus Laws" enacted by the illegitimate pro-slavery Territorial Legislature of 1855. There is even a book that details claims settled in 1856, when Kansans who lost a cow, a saddle or other farming necessities during the "Bleeding Kansas" period could appeal to the courts for compensation.

"We help scholars who contact us from all over the region and even from other countries -- public defenders, prosecutors, genealogists and people researching myriad legal issues," McCray Pearson said. "We also have many lawyers in the area who conduct their research here."

The Wheats' commitment will allow the school to purchase many types of materials ranging from Kansas and U.S. legal history to emerging areas of the law, including the law of cyberspace and technology, McCray Pearson added.

"We want to provide access to all types of library users, both those who actually come into the library to browse the shelves for books as well as those across the state who can access an electronic book or database via the Internet," she said.

Doug said he and Laura made their pledge to provide resources for school improvements and to encourage other alumni to give for the school. He is a member of the KU First Steering Committee and chairman of the KU First Law Campaign Committee. Both groups are helping raise funds for the school during KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign in KU history.

"As chairman of the committee, I feel it is extremely important to support the school through private gifts," Doug said. "I'm very impressed at what the school has accomplished over the past 20 years, and I want to help take it to the next level, to make it one of the top 15 public law schools in the country."

Doug, business '72 and law '74, is president and co-founder of Haas Wheat and Partners, a Dallas-based private investment firm with partial ownership of brands such as Playtex and college textbook wholesaler Nebraska Book Co. Prior to establishing the firm with Robert Haas in 1992, Doug was co-chairman of the investment firm Grauer and Wheat. He is a director at Nebraska Book Co., Playtex Products Inc., AMN Healthcare Services Inc. and the Gladney Fund of Fort Worth, Texas, among others.

Laura earned a bachelor's degree from Ohio University and a juris doctorate from the University of Maryland. From 1982 until 1990, she practiced corporate law with the firms Johnson & Gibbs and Jackson & Walker. She is a full-time mother to the Wheat children, Adam, Cassie, Kyler and Tanner. She is president of the board of Gilda's Club of North Texas and a board member of the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center, Gilda's Club International, Ronald McDonald House and the Gladney Board of Fort Worth, Texas, among others.

The couple's gift counts toward the $500 million goal of KU First. 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.