Scholarship named in honor of honors lecturer

$100,000 fund assists undergraduates majoring in English

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

A new $100,000 scholarship fund has been established to support undergraduate students in the department of English. The Mary A. Klayder Scholarship will help support various student activities, including study abroad and research work.

Students must apply for the scholarship, and the tentative deadline for applications will be in March. The late Bernard “Bud” Hirsch, a longtime professor of English, who died in 2006, named the scholarship after Klayder, a University Honors Lecturer in English. Klayder had worked with Hirsch for more than 20 years.

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It’s quite common for scholarships to be named after the donors who financed them, but Hirsch wanted to recognize Klayder for her years of service in the department of English as both a teacher and adviser.

“I didn’t expect it,” Klayder said.

Klayder described Hirsch as feisty, impassionate and direct. And the two had much in common. Both had a love for teaching and both had spouses die in the 1990s. Klayder said the two of them went through those difficult times together and their friendship grew stronger.

Anna Neill, coordinator of undergraduate studies and associate professor of English, said she wasn’t surprised Hirsch wanted his scholarship to be named after Klayder.

“She’s the appropriate person to have the scholarship named after,” Neill said.

Klayder earned her undergraduate degrees in English and art history from the University in 1972. After graduation, she taught high school in Colorado for 10 years. She said she found that she enjoyed working with young people but missed being at the University of Kansas.

“I kept telling people to go to college and do what you want to do, and I realized I should be telling myself that,” she said.

In 1985 she returned to Lawrence and began her graduate studies and taught class.

“It’s really meaningful for me to teach here,” Klayder said. “I learned so much from the teachers and students.”

Klayder primarily teaches honors courses, and during winter break, she and her advanced composition class will study abroad in Costa Rica. John Kuhn, Jamestown, Kan., senior and English major, was a student in Klayder’s freshman and sophomore honors English classes. He said both classes were exemplary.

“She really knows how to draw people out,” Kuhn said. “Her courses are academically rigorous but are also exceptional in that she really cares about her students as people.”

Klayder has also served as Kuhn’s academic adviser.

“She’s interested in your development as an individual, something that I think is very important,” he said.

Klayder’s interest in her students has been well received. She also is a H.O.P.E Award finalist this year. The H.O.P.E Awards are given to teachers who have been nominated by students for teaching excellence.

Klayder said that in the future, her students could expect her to be content right where she was at.

“I feel comfortable,” she said. “I was an undergrad here, and feel I understand what it’s like to come to Lawrence and be a student. I love to teach here. I can’t imagine teaching anywhere else.”

— Edited by Elizabeth Cattell

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