A former Kansas University chancellor and his wife have established a new special-education professorship at KU.

The Gene A. Budig Teaching Professorship in Special Education will be awarded annually to a special-education faculty member who demonstrates classroom excellence.

The teaching professorship is the first for the department and the second that Budig and his wife, Gretchen, have established in education at KU.

The professorship was established through a combination of gifts from the Budigs to the KU Endowment Association and gifts made to the endowment association in Budig’s name when he left KU in 1994.

Budig was named KU’s 14th chancellor in 1981. He left KU to become president of Major League Baseball’s American League. He currently is senior adviser to the league, and he and his wife live in Princeton, N.J.