KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Kansas University announced Tuesday it has received a gift of $1 million for an endocrinology professorship in honor of the late Robert Bolinger, a KU Medical Center professor and physician.

The professorship will be established through a $1 million bequest from one of Bolinger’s former students, J. “Jay” Harold Morris Jr., a physician, and Morris’ wife, Mary Ann, of Lee’s Summit, Mo.

The professorship will someday provide a salary stipend for a scholar who will research and teach the disorders of the endocrine system and its hormones.

Endocrinology is a division of the KU School of Medicine’s department of internal medicine.

The couple’s bequest to KU Endowment counts toward the $500 million goal of KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign in KU history.

Bolinger died in July 2001. He was the founding director of the Clinical Research Center at the KU Medical Center and a director of the metabolism, endocrinology and genetics division.

Bolinger was considered a pioneer in insulin metabolism, diabetes, renal dialysis and the use of computers in medicine.