KU News Release

Scholarship established in memory of KU student who died in apartment fire

Nicole Bingham

LAWRENCE — On what would have been her daughter’s 22nd birthday, Nancy Bingham signed two memorable papers: The first one authorized her daughter’s cremation, the second one established a scholarship in her memory.

University of Kansas student Nicole Bingham died Oct. 7, 2005, the victim of a fire at the Boardwalk Apartments complex in Lawrence. Four days after the fire, dental records revealed the identity of Nancy Bingham’s only child.

In the past two years, the Nicole Bingham Memorial Scholarship Fund has grown to $30,000. The first scholarship will be awarded in the fall 2008 semester. To qualify for the need-based scholarship, undergraduate students should be history majors and have a grade-point average no higher than 3.5, which, Nancy Bingham said, reflects her daughter’s grades.

“That day I started the scholarship, Oct. 12, 2005, will always be, to me, the day that I signed papers to dispose of my daughter’s remains and to make her memory last forever,” Bingham said. “That’s what I hope this scholarship will do, and that the people who receive it will have that same passion for learning and history that Nicole had.”

A KU senior and history major, Nicole Bingham looked forward to a career in museum management. She was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority and worked in the business office of the Kansas Union. She was the survivor of a 1999 open heart surgery to repair a congenital heart defect. For the rest of her life, she took heart medication and was careful not to overexert.

Her daughter would have approved of the scholarship, said Nancy Bingham, who lives in Wichita.

“She loved KU. She wanted to live in Lawrence forever,” she said. “The scholarship was, for me, the way to let Nicole’s memory continue, to do good and to follow her dreams.”

Bill Tsutsui, chair of KU’s Department of History, said the scholarship was a meaningful tribute to Nicole Bingham.

“A lot of my faculty here taught Nicole and were extremely upset to hear about the fire,” Tsutsui said. “We think it’s so wonderful and so appropriate that we now have a scholarship that can help other students in her honor.”

And, Tsutsui noted, the department has 550 history majors but only five scholarships.

Nancy Bingham plans to continue adding to her daughter’s memorial scholarship fund so that a growing number of students will benefit. She is retired from the Boeing Company, which matches up to 50 percent of her contributions. Gifts from family and friends also helped endow the fund.

Two other Boardwalk residents died in the fire. Later, the blaze would be classified as arson. In May, a jury convicted Lawrence resident Jason Rose of three counts of involuntary manslaughter, one count of aggravated arson and seven counts of aggravated battery. Rose is serving a 10-year prison sentence.

Contributions to the Nicole Bingham Memorial Scholarship Fund may be made through KU Endowment, the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.

-30-

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.