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 1/16/09

KU Endowment to match 5,000th gift made online

LAWRENCE — Doubling a gift to the University of Kansas was never easier.

KU Endowment reached the milestone of 5,000 online gifts on Friday, Jan. 16. The 5,000th online gift was a $250 donation to the Jay Turnbull Fellowship at the Beach Center on Disability. As promised, KU Endowment will match the gift. It came jointly from Steve Warren, vice provost for research and graduate studies, and Eva Horn, professor of special education.

The Jay Turnbull Fellowship was established by Jay’s parents, Rud and Ann Turnbull, to honor their son. He was diagnosed as a child with intellectual disabilities and autism. Nonetheless, he achieved considerable independence, living on his own from age 22, and he worked at KU for 20 years, most recently as an office and clerical assistant at the Beach Center.

We regret to report that Jay Turnbull died unexpectedly of natural causes on Jan. 7 at his home. He was 41. He is survived by his parents and two sisters. We offer condolences to his family and all who knew him. The family has posted this memorial blog.

Warren formerly directed the Life Span Institute, where the Beach Center is located. He knew Jay Turnbull for more than 25 years.

“With the extraordinary support of his family, Jay became a pioneer of sorts and in many ways a symbol of ‘what is possible’ for individuals with severe cognitive disabilities,” he said. “His success, despite great challenges, was, is, and will continue to be inspirational to people like him and their loved ones throughout the world. That is a pretty impressive legacy, if you ask me.”

Donors have been giving gifts to KU online since 2001. The first online gift, made in January that year, was $50 for the School of Law. Since then, gifts have been made to hundreds of departments and programs throughout the university. In the 2008 fiscal year, more than $400,000 was donated to KU online. The average online gift was $258.

December 2008 saw the largest number of donations on record. The record for a month other than December was set in April 2008, when 193 online donors gave a total of $27,233 to a fund established to celebrate the national men’s NCAA basketball championship.

KU Endowment is the independent, nonprofit foundation 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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