KU News Release

New KU scholarships will benefit students from Wyandotte County and Topeka

LAWRENCE — Grateful parents of two University of Kansas graduates have given $550,000 for two scholarships at KU. The scholarships will benefit engineering students from Wyandotte County and students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from Topeka.

Seattle attorney Bill Wall and his wife, Shirley, designated the gift to KU through a program funded by ConocoPhillips. As a former board member of Burlington Resources, later acquired by ConocoPhillips, Wall was granted the privilege of designating $1 million to a higher education charity upon his death. After consultations with his wife and KU Endowment, Wall decided to make an early distribution valued at $550,000 to establish the scholarships while he was still living. Their sons, KU alumni Daniel and David Wall, established the criteria for the scholarship funds.

Making the gift in his lifetime will allow the Walls to see the gift benefit KU, enjoy the philanthropy with their sons and meet the students who receive the scholarships.

“I was glad to be in on the transfer, I must say,” said Wall, who is 80. He and his sons attended a recent event at KU during which Rich Johnson, a spokesperson for ConocoPhillips, presented the check to KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway.

“Because of their appreciation for the education their sons received here, Bill and Shirley Wall chose to name KU as the beneficiary of the charitable gift from ConocoPhillips,” Hemenway said. “This is a gift that will keep on giving, and it will provide scholarship assistance for generations of KU students.”

Wall, former president, CEO and chairman of the board of Kansas Power and Light, said he and his wife will always be grateful for the education their sons received at KU and for his career opportunities at Kansas Power and Light. He said this gift is about paying back: “We’d be strange people indeed if we didn’t recognize a debt.”

After leaving Kansas, Bill Wall served on the board of directors of Burlington Resources, which ConocoPhillips acquired in 2006.

Wyandotte County students will be eligible for the Daniel Wall Engineering Scholarship. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences scholarship, named for David Wall, is for graduates of Topeka High School. Daniel Wall, who lives in Mission, earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at KU in 1983. He works for the Environmental Protection Agency in Kansas City, Kan. David Wall, of Mount Vernon, Wash., earned a bachelor’s degree in personnel administration at KU in 1983 and a law degree from Washburn University.

The scholarship funds are managed by KU Endowment, the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management foundation for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.

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