Pittsburg ? Pittsburg State University plans to use a $1.7 million gift from the estate of a Pittsburg State University graduate and his late wife to help the library buy databases and other electronic information.

Theodore and Faery Loveridge specified that the money should endow a fund, which will generate about $80,000 to $85,000 each year. Theodore Loveridge died in 1998, and his wife died in May.

The couple bequeathed an equal amount to the University of Oklahoma, where Faery Loveridge received a bachelor’s degree.

Robert Walter, the dean of learning resources at Pittsburg State University, said the Loveridge gift would help meet critical needs at the library.

“There is a misconception that the Internet has eliminated the need for books and journals,” Walter said. “The demand for books and journals has not diminished and at the same time, the demand for electronic publications and databases has grown dramatically.”

Theodore Loveridge, a native of the southeast Kansas town of Franklin, studied chemistry and math at Kansas State Teachers College, now Pittsburg State University. After his 1939 graduation, he pursued a degree in pharmacy from the Kansas City College of Pharmacy. He spent most of his professional career as the assistant chief inspector for the Food and Drug Administration.

His wife, Faery Loveridge, worked in the laboratory for Phillips Petroleum Co. and as a librarian for Cornell University after graduating from the University of Oklahoma.