Andersons commit $3.5 million for KU football facility, School of Business

Nov. 12, 2004

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Los Angeles residents Dana and Sue Anderson have pledged securities valued at $3.5 million for a proposed football facility and the School of Business at the University of Kansas.

Ninety percent of the gift to the Kansas University Endowment Association will support the facility, while 10 percent will be designated for the business school.

Dana Anderson, a 1959 business graduate, said he is confident the facility would make a major difference to the success of the KU football team. “I am convinced we can substantially increase the revenue the football program generates — and not just for athletics but the whole university — but first we need to provide appropriate facilities,” he said. “I am confident that can be accomplished, and I look forward to the day we dedicate those facilities.”

Lew Perkins, director of athletics, emphasized that the facility is still in the early planning stages. “The support from the Anderson family brings us one step closer to our fund-raising goal,” Perkins said. “Once we have secured the funding necessary to build the facility, we will work with Chancellor Hemenway and the appropriate university administrators to create a facility that KU, its student-athletes, fans and alumni can be proud of.”

The Andersons are longtime supporters of KU. In 2001, they provided $4 million to help fund the Anderson Family Strength and Conditioning Center. In 1996 the couple and their son Justin Anderson of Lawrence committed $10.5 million to KU Endowment through a combination of cash gifts, insurance and a bequest designated through their estate plans.

This year they decided to revise that 1996 gift plan to provide the $3.5 million in securities now rather than from the estate. The securities will be sold to provide immediate support for the football facility and business school.

“Almost 10 years ago we entered into a goal to give $10.5 million, including a bequest from my estate,” Dana Anderson said. “I’m older now, and I have a clearer focus on the end of my life. We enjoyed so much seeing the strength and conditioning center being built and decided that it would be great to see the completion of the football facility during our lifetimes.”

In 1966 Dana Anderson joined the Macerich Co., which owns, manages and leases regional shopping centers and malls in the United States. He was its chief operating officer from 1993 until 1997 and has been the vice chairman of the board since 1993. He is also an investor and a member of the board of the Alvamar Development Corp. of Lawrence.

He is active in many KU organizations, including KU Endowment, where he is a trustee and a member of the steering committee of KU First: Invest in Excellence. He is also a member of the School of Business Board of Advisors and chairman of the KU First Athletics Campaign Committee. The Kansas Alumni Association awarded him the Fred Ellsworth Medallion in 1998.

A Topeka native, Sue Anderson earned an associate’s degree from William Woods College in Fulton, Mo., in 1961. Besides Justin Anderson, a 1995 graduate in business administration, the other children in the Anderson family are Jerry, Dana Jr. and Jenee.

The Andersons’ gift counts toward the goal of KU First. KU Endowment is conducting KU First on behalf of KU through 2004 to raise in excess of $600 million for scholarships, fellowships, professorships, capital projects and program support. KU Endowment serves as the independent, nonprofit fund-raising and fund-management organization for KU.