Alumna bequeaths $200,000 to KU Graduate School

LAWRENCE -- A former University of Kansas student has bequeathed $200,000 to benefit the KU Graduate School, Dean Diana Carlin announced today.

Dorothy Clark Lettice, who attended KU with the class of 1925 but did not receive a degree, died Nov. 9, 2002, in Santa Barbara, Calif. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma while at KU. After leaving the university, she lived in Lawrence and in Lansing, Mich., and she spent most of her life in several California cities.

The Dorothy Clark Lettice Fund will provide graduate school scholarships. The gift will count toward the $500 million goal of KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign in KU history.

"The Dorothy Clark Lettice Fund was a welcome surprise for the Graduate School," Carlin said. "The bequest enables us to assist departments in recruiting outstanding graduate students to KU. Graduate education is the lifeblood of a research university. Graduate students are often an undergraduate's introduction to an area of study. They also assist faculty with their research and they enrich the service provided by the university. Ms. Lettice obviously understood their importance."

The fund is administered by the KU Endowment Association, 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. KU Endowment is conducting KU First on behalf of KU through 2004 to raise funds for scholarships, fellowships, professorships, capital projects and program support.