The estate of a longtime Kansas City, Mo., attorney whose own higher education was enabled by a scholarship is giving $4 million to Kansas University to establish a scholarship fund for students showing academic excellence and financial need.

KU Endowment announced on Tuesday the gift from the late Irving Kuraner and his wife, Leona.

Kuraner was born in Leavenworth in 1919, earned a bachelor’s degree from KU in 1940 and graduated from Columbia Law School in New York in 1946, according to KU Endowment. He died in 2014. Leona died in 1996.

Irving Kuraner

Kuraner received a Summerfield Scholarship to attend KU, the university’s first merit scholarship established in 1929. He also received a scholarship and additional money loaned by his older brother Alfred Kuraner and wife Genevieve to attend law school.

“My way through college was paid by a scholarship,” Kuraner said in an interview with a family historian, shared by KU Endowment. “If it had not been for that, I’m not sure I would have ever even attempted college.”

Kuraner served in the U.S. Army during World War II. In Kansas City he worked in private practice with his brother and later for what’s now American Century Investments as executive vice president and general counsel, according to KU Endowment. He retired in 1990.

“The financial support he received was instrumental in Irving Kuraner’s ability to attend KU and enjoy a successful career. Through their estate gift, the Kuraners left a legacy that will open doors for future leaders to attend KU,” Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said in a news release. “This will enable deserving students to reduce debt and devote more time to intellectual exploration.”