photo by: Ann Dean/KU Endowment

KU alumnus David Pittaway, left, has established the first named deanship in university history. The first dean to hold the name is Arash Mafi, executive dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

A longtime Kansan who likes to tout Lawrence’s role in national history has given an $8 million gift to elevate the dean position at KU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and to create two new endowed professorships.

David Pittaway said he’s long been proud that his family moved to Kansas in the 1850s to oppose slavery. Giving a multimillion-dollar gift to the university that is located in the community that led the way in opposing slavery made good sense, he said.

“Lawrence’s role as the center of the free state movement symbolizes why my ancestors had moved to Kansas in the first place,” he said in a press release. “This gift will carry on their work and hopefully strengthen the university going forward.”

Pittaway is a KU alumnus who went on to earn Harvard law and business degrees before becoming the vice chairman for the New York-based private equity investment firm Castle Harlan Inc.

Pittaway said he wanted part of his gift to go toward the dean’s position in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences because he worries that today’s college experience can be too narrow for many students. For instance, he said the education he received in history ended up being critical to his success in the business world.

“Many people begin their careers with too narrow of a focus,” he said. “A dean who is focused on preserving broad exposure to disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences and bringing them into the 21st century is important.”

With the gift, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will now carry the title of the David B. Pittaway Executive Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. It is the first time in KU history that the university has had a named deanship.

Pittaway also wanted to create two professorships that would honor his late parents. The JoAnne Kenney Pittaway Professorship in the Humanities is named for his mother, who was a librarian.

“If there were a professorship in crossword puzzles, I would have done that,” he said. “She appreciated things of the mind. I want to make sure that higher education continues to foster that kind of thinking.”

The Alan Ralph Pittaway Professorship in Chemistry is named for David Pittaway’s father, a graduate of Kansas State University who was commissioned in the U.S. Army Reserve, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He would go on to become a noted inventor, with the patents on the now standard small arms weapons flash suppressor for U.S. military rifles, as well as an infrared decoy against heat-seeking missiles in defense of U.S. aircraft.

Pittaway, who now lives in Florida, has made other significant gifts to the university in past years. In 2012, he created an endowed professorship to lead KU’s national championship debate program, and in 2019 he established a professorship in military history.