For years, John and Linda Bliss Stewart tailgated at Kansas University football games and watched the marching band file past them on the way to Memorial Stadium.

Now, the Wellington residents are making a major donation toward getting new uniforms for the band.

“It was always one of the most exciting things to see the band come in,” Linda Stewart said. “It’s important for the image of the university. We have a first-class band. They’re good ambassadors for the university.”

The Stewarts announced Monday they would give $25,000 to the Feather the Flock campaign, the largest donation to date. The campaign aims to raise $150,000 by March 1 to replace KU’s dilapidated, 22-year-old uniforms.

And the Stewarts issued this challenge: If the campaign garners an additional $25,000 in pledges by March 1, they will kick in another $25,000.

If the challenge grant funding is attained, the Feather the Flock campaign will exceed its goal.

“Our hope for the challenge part of the gift is that we’ll be successful in our drive for the remaining funds,” John Stewart said.

Linda Stewart said she had the idea of donating to the marching fund after Steve Hedden, dean of the School of Fine Arts, invited two uniform-clad marchers to a meeting of the school’s advisory board. She said the condition of the uniforms was so poor it was clear that KU needed new ones.

John Stewart said he was serving on the executive committee of the KU Endowment Association when the current uniforms were purchased in 1982.

Feather the Flock View the donation list

“I’m sure they’re held up by duct tape,” he said. “The band is a very important part of many KU activities. Its members deserve first-class uniforms.”

John Stewart, who graduated from the KU School of Business in 1958, is the former president and CEO of Plessey Aero Precision Corp., a subsidiary of General Electric Corp. He currently is on the finance committee for the KU Endowment Association.

John Stewart received the 1978 Fred Ellsworth Medallion for service to KU. Linda Stewart, who also attended KU, received the honor in 2001.

The Stewarts donated $500,000 to KU in 1990. That money was divided among scholarships for the school of business, the Lied Center, the school of fine arts, the Alumni Association, athletics building expansion, the Stewart Children’s Center and the Endowment Association.

The Kansas Health Foundation last week donated $500,000 to the KU school of medicine to create a scholarship in John Stewart’s name. Stewart served as the foundation’s chairman from 1996 to 2002.

Hedden, the Fine Arts dean, said the Stewarts’ gift was a big boost toward the marching band drive.

“We’re delighted that John and Linda have stepped forward with a gift of this magnitude,” Hedden said. “They’re been stalwart supporters of many causes at KU, and we’re delighted one of their causes is the marching band.”