MU announces $25 million gift
The University of Missouri Thursday announced a major gift from law school alum and former President of Enron, Richard Kinder.
The $25 million gift is the 4th largest ever at MU.
This new gift will provide permanent support for the Kinder Institute, formerly named the Kinder Forum, which was created in 2014 by a prior $1.67 million gift from the Kinder Foundation through the Jack Miller Center .
The Kinder Institute supports the research and scholarship of MU faculty, undergraduate and graduate students who seek to explore questions related to the history, theory and practice of constitutional democracy as it was crafted by the American founders and developed in subsequent generations.
MU Chancellor Bowen Loftin was at Thursday’s event. Loftin said,”One of MU’s primary missions as a state university is to promote and provide education on our government and its history for its students and the population as a whole.”
He said, “The Kinders’ philanthropy and vision will help position MU as a national center for education and scholarship on our governance system’s founding and purpose.”
Richard Kinder is co-founder and executive chairman of Kinder Morgan, Inc., the largest midstream and the third largest energy company in North America based on enterprise value. He also serves as chairman of the board of trustees and a life trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts,Houston and chairman of the advisory board of Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.
Kinder’s wife, Nancy Kinder, is president of the Kinder Foundation. She also serves on the boards of Discovery Green Corporation and MD Anderson Cancer Center, as well as president of the Advisory Board of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University.
