Topeka banker gives $500,000 for business professorship at KU

LAWRENCE -- A Topeka banker who wants to help the University of Kansas reward excellent professors for their teaching has given $500,000 for a professorship in business, KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway announced today.

Anderson W. Chandler, chairman of the Topeka-based Fidelity State Bank and Trust Co., established the Anderson W. Chandler Teaching Professorship in Business Fund at the Kansas University Endowment Association. The interest earned on the endowed fund, which is meant to encourage quality teaching, will support a salary stipend for the recipient. The size of the fund is expected to increase because it is eligible for state matching support through the Kansas Partnership for Faculty of Distinction Program.

"Engaging, challenging professors are the foundation of great classroom experiences, so it's important that KU have the means to encourage the development of such professors," Hemenway said. "This fund will provide a wonderful resource to help KU recognize excellence in classroom teaching among the many fine professors of the KU School of Business."

William Fuerst, dean of the KU School of Business, said professorships help the school reward faculty members' dedication in the classroom.

"Professorships are key to attracting and retaining the kind of faculty members who really energize students in the classroom and who have a major impact on the lives of business students through teaching and advising," Fuerst said. "We are very grateful to receive the support needed to reward those kinds of professors."

Chandler, business '48, said that when he was a KU student, he felt one of the hallmarks of a great professor was an individual's ability to make a course interesting and relevant to current events.

"When I was a student, the business school was in a period of rapid growth and transition, with lots of war veterans entering business," he said. "It was important that professors focused not so much on business history but on what we could look to do in the business world and how we could hope to adapt."

Several of his former professors stood out as exemplary teachers, he said. Among those were Irvin Youngberg, who taught economics; Frank Stockton, another economics professor and dean of the business school; and Leland Pritchard, his mentor in banking and international finance.

"I really valued and respected my professors," he said.

At age 17, Chandler enlisted in the Army Air Forces for World War II and was a B-17 Flying Fortress flight engineer. He returned to Kansas to attend KU in hopes of entering the family banking business, which his father started in Kansas in 1883. Chandler was a Summerfield scholar at KU and an honor graduate of the Air Force ROTC program.

Ten years after he graduated from KU, Chandler and his family purchased Fidelity Bank and he was named chief executive officer. Today, in addition to his position as chairman, president and CEO of Fidelity, Chandler is vice president of First Bank of Newton and chairman of Fidelity Bankshares Inc. He and his family also operate First National Bank in Pratt and the Wichita-based Intrust Bank N.A.

Among his many volunteer activities, Chandler has served as chairman of the KU Memorial Corporation, which operates the KU student unions. He is a member of the School of Business Board of Advisors and the KU Endowment Board of Trustees. In addition, he is a member of the board of directors for the Boy Scouts of America and has served as chair of the United Way of Greater Topeka, for which he was a founding member of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society.

He has been a longtime supporter of KU athletics programs and the School of Business. In 1996, he gave $500,000 to KU Endowment to establish the Anderson Chandler Lecture Series for the school. The series brings nationally and internationally known speakers to KU for public lectures, classroom appearances and interaction with students.

Chandler was married to Patricia Chandler, who died in 1999. He and Patricia had four daughters, all KU alumnae: Cathleen Stevenson, political science and Spanish '72 and law '75; Cynthia Hoad, art education '76; Corliss Miller, personnel administration '78 and MBA '81; and Colette Gaches, elementary education '83.

In 2000, Chandler married Edith Lessenden, liberal arts '46 and master's in speech and drama '52. Recognized for her acting by the Kansas Historical Society, she has portrayed Kansas and national figures such as Mary Todd Lincoln, Libby Custer, Dolley Madison and Emily Dickinson. She is a member of the literary and arts society American Pen Women.

Chandler's gift counts 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.