The University of Kansas is special to Jeff Lindenbaum, a physician in Billings, Montana. The KU alumnus met his wife, Joan Sorenson, M.D., while they were basketball-loving undergraduates on Mount Oread. His late father, Siegfried Lindenbaum, was a faculty member in the School of Pharmacy for more than two decades.
To honor his father, the couple made a $1 million gift commitment to expand the Siegfried Lindenbaum Memorial Scholarship, which supports graduate students in the KU Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry.
Siegfried Lindenbaum was an orphan and a war refugee, who experienced trauma and displacement in his childhood and never felt like he belonged anywhere. But he did feel a connection to Kansas.
“Kansas was a big part of his life, and that’s part of why the decision to make this gift was easy for me, because it was part of my life, too,” he said. “Dad was passionate about research and teaching, and this gift honors both of those passions.”
Both Jeff Lindenbaum and Joan Sorenson credit their success at prestigious East Coast medical schools to their undergraduate educations at KU. He is a radiologist, and his wife is a retired pediatrician.
“KU gave me incredible teachers and experiences and helped launch me into medical school and residency,” Lindenbaum said. “My wife and I both got our start at KU, and it gave us the foundation we needed to succeed.”
That success meant they were able to make a gift commitment using their retirement account. Lindenbaum named KU Endowment a beneficiary of his IRA, which allows the couple to leave a legacy while maintaining their own resources during their lifetimes.
Lindenbaum said it’s meaningful the gift might help students who faced adversity, much like his father.
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