riedel
News Releases
11/19/08
LAWRENCE — Distance is no barrier to Alan Riedel’s love for the Marching Jayhawks.
The Garden City resident has no formal ties to the University of Kansas and lives 350 miles from Lawrence, but he’s such a great fan that he has made estate plans to leave $200,000 to the marching band’s endowment fund.
“I love the Marching Jayhawks,” said the 58-year-old Riedel, who described himself as a band aficionado and school fight-song fanatic. “I know nothing about music. I probably couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, but I love the KU band.”
Riedel’s estate gift to KU Endowment will be added to the Marching Jayhawks endowment, established earlier this year with a $100,000 gift from Dana and Sue Anderson of Los Angeles. The ultimate goal is to grow the fund so that it produces the level of funding needed to sustain the band’s excellence.
Dana Anderson said he was elated to learn of Riedel’s plans. That’s just the type of support he and his wife wanted their gift to spur.
“I know we’ve had positive responses in the form of additional gifts from others,” Anderson said. “But there’s been nothing close to the magnitude of this gift planned by Alan Riedel — that’s twice what we gave.”
Scott Weiss, director of bands, said the purpose of the Marching Jayhawks endowment is to provide long-term financial security for the band. He said the band has adequate funds to operate on a day-to-day basis but that it’s challenging to come up with additional funds for instruments, uniforms and scholarships. The Marching Jayhawks endowment will help provide for all of these.
Riedel said his estate gift will go to something that has given him the most enjoyment in his life.
“That is why I plan to leave funds for the Marching Jayhawks,” Riedel said. “So that others can get enjoyment out of it in the years to come.”
Riedel also plans to leave his collection of band recordings and memorabilia to KU. He grew up in the central Kansas town of Claflin and is an alumnus of Fort Hays State University. For the past 35 years he has lived in Garden City, where until his 2005 retirement, he worked for the Kansas Department of Human Resources.
His passion for the Marching Jayhawks arose in 1973 when he and his brother, Michael Riedel, who earned a biology degree from KU in 1977, attended the KU-K-State football game in Lawrence. They were so determined to make it to the game that they braved floodwaters in central Kansas to get there.
Since then, he and his brother have attended football games at nearly all the Big 12 schools, with at least one yearly visit to a KU home game. Riedel said KU is his favorite: “I can assure you, there’s nothing like KU.”
Weiss recently traveled to Garden City to visit Riedel.
“Alan is certainly one of the KU Marching Jayhawks’ biggest fans,” Weiss said. “His collection of band recordings and memorabilia from throughout the nation must be one of the largest and most extensive private collections in the country. Not only has Mr. Riedel made a wonderful financial contribution to the band, but his gift of this collection will benefit future students at KU for years to come.”
The fund is 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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