Georgia alumni couple pledges $100,000

LAWRENCE -- A University of Kansas football All-American and his wife have pledged $100,000 for the Kansas Alumni Association, association President Fred Williams announced today.

The gift to the KU Endowment Association from Gil and Kay Lambert Reich, of Savannah, Ga., will support the Second Century Fund, which provides unrestricted support for the Alumni Association.

"We are especially heartened by the trust Gil and Kay have placed in our organization and its leadership," Williams said. "With their help, the association's programs for KU and its alumni will continue to thrive."

While a student at KU, Gil Reich was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and lettered in both basketball and football. He was selected as an All-American at defensive back in 1952, when he played defensive halfback, quarterback, fullback and also halfback on offense. In addition to his five touchdown passes and 428 yards of total offense, he was the team's top punt returner. In basketball, he was a starter at guard on the 1952-53 team that won the Big Seven Championship and placed second in the NCAA finals. In 1954, he graduated from KU with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering.

Following graduation, Gil Reich had a 34-year career with Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. He retired in 1988. He has been active for both the Alumni Association and KU Endowment, serving as a past chairman and now a member of the Alumni Association's national board of directors. During Campaign Kansas, KU Endowment's major fund drive from 1989 to 1993, he served as a member of the steering committee and was chairman of the southeast regional committee.

Kay Lambert Reich also participated in Campaign Kansas as a member of the southeast regional committee. She graduated in 1954 with a bachelor's degree in history from KU, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority, Mortar Board and the Spirit Squad. She and Gil Reich have three children, Gretchen Reich Pennington, Linda Reich Hovde and Lucy Reich Hurd.

Through a bequest, the Reichs previously committed to gifts for several purposes, including the Williams Educational Fund and the KU libraries. They have also helped fund the Wagnon Student Athlete Center, the Kansas Alumni Association Rock Chalk Society and the Warren V. Woody Athletic Scholarship.

Gil and Kay Reich are lifetime members of the Jayhawk Society of the Alumni Association. At KU Endowment, they are members of the Elizabeth Watkins Society, which honors donors of planned gifts, and lifetime members of the Chancellors Club, KU Endowment's major-donor recognition organization.

KU Endowment is an independent, non-profit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university and one of the largest.