Stan Stauffer, 86, a Kansas University alumnus and Kansas journalist for 60 years, died Thursday after a battle with cancer.

Stauffer graduated from KU’s School of Journalism in 1942. He was a former board chairman and president of Stauffer Communications Inc., which at one time owned and operated daily and weekly newspapers and television and radio stations in 15 states, including the Topeka Capital-Journal and WIBW television and radio in Topeka.

In 2002, Stauffer and his wife, Madeline, who survives, gave $200,000 to create the Stan and Madeline Stauffer Multimedia Newsroom on the KU campus.

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway in a statement lauded Stauffer for his work as an alumnus, including his service as a national board member of the KU Alumni Association in the 1960s.

“Stan Stauffer’s gifts to the university as a volunteer, donor and adviser will not be forgotten, notably in journalism where his support for the cutting-edge technology of Internet journalism will have a deep and lasting impact for future generations of journalists,” Hemenway said.

The journalism school’s main building, Stauffer-Flint Hall, is named in part after Oscar Stauffer, Stan’s father.