KU News Release

Twelfth scholarship hall to be constructed at KU; donor named in ceremony today

LAWRENCE — A $4 million gift in honor of two 1940s alumni of the University of Kansas will fund construction of a scholarship hall at KU. The hall will be the 12th such residence created for students with outstanding academic and leadership abilities.

The hall will be adjacent to the north side of Dennis E. Rieger Hall, which is home to 50 women at 1323 Ohio St. The hall for men will be designed to be the mirror image of Rieger Hall. The university plans to begin construction in the spring with a goal to complete the facility by the start of the fall 2008 semester.

Former state representative and 1970 KU alumnus Carl C. Krehbiel (pronounced KRAY-bel) pledged the gift that will fund the hall. The gift to KU Endowment honors Krehbiel’s parents, Kathryn Krehbiel, who graduated with a liberal arts degree in 1945, and the late Floyd H. Krehbiel, who graduated with a liberal arts degree in 1947. The university will ask the Kansas Board of Regents to name the hall for the couple.

“I had a great experience living in Stephenson Scholarship Hall when I was a student,” said Carl Krehbiel of Moundridge. “My parents were dedicated to KU and to their children, and this is a way for me to honor them and create a positive living environment for future generations of KU students.”

Like its existing twin, Rieger Hall, the new facility will be an 18,000-square-foot, three-story building with an exterior designed to blend in with the neighborhood’s turn-of-the-century homes. It will house 50 men in two-person rooms and four-person suites. The hall will have a quiet geothermal heating and cooling system. The design of both halls is the product of a committee of university, community and student representatives who met in 2003. The group worked to develop designs that would recognize the importance of the neighborhood and address historic and preservation issues.

Officials from KU and KU Endowment, the university’s fundraising organization, announced the gift and plans for the hall today with Carl Krehbiel and Kathryn Krehbiel at a ceremony at Rieger Hall.

“A legislator, a businessman and a retired lieutenant colonel, Carl Krehbiel carries a long tradition of service to his country and his state,” said KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway. “That tradition extends to the future residents of KU’s newest scholarship hall, who will ultimately benefit from his foresight and generosity.”

An ROTC participant, Carl Krehbiel lived in KU’s Stephenson Hall in the late 1960s and studied abroad his senior year. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1970 with a dual degree in Germanic languages and literature and international relations. He also studied at the University of Southern California, where he earned master’s and doctoral degrees, and at the University of Munich.

A Vietnam veteran and Green Beret, he served in the U.S. Army for 20 years. He took over the family business, Moundridge Telephone Co., in 1992 following the death of his father. Elected to the state legislature in 1998, he served as a representative for the 74th District until 2006.

Carl Krehbiel has many family connections to KU. His grandfather, Carl C. Krehbiel, was a 1913 alumnus. His father — a Battenfeld Scholarship Hall resident — and his mother played in the KU band for basketball games in the 1940s.

His gift and construction of the scholarship hall will be managed by KU Endowment. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.

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The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.