Topeka ? Notes and papers written by the man who wrote the GI Bill of Rights have been donated to the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka.

Harry W. Colmery, a World War I veteran and Topeka lawyer, wrote the first draft of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act – commonly called the GI Bill of Rights – during an emergency meeting of the American Legion in Washington D.C. in 1943. The act is credited with giving millions of servicemen returning from World War II the means to get an education and buy homes.

Colmery was also the national president of the American Legion and active in Republican Party politics from 1911 until his death in 1979. A native of Bardic, Pa., he moved to Topeka in December 1919.

Colmery’s daughter, Mary Oleander, of Prairie Village, said Thursday that she found the last of the many notes and papers in a canvas bag in her attic.

“And it turned out to be the original notes of the GI Bill,” she said.

Nancy Sherbet, historical society curator of photographs and acquisitions, said the papers discuss every facet of Colmery’s career. “Say you’re researching the American Legion or the GI Bill, this is where you could come,” she said.