Sixty years ago this spring, John P. Fowler II didn’t have a nickel to his name. The University of Kansas senior civil engineering major couldn’t sleep at night, knowing the last installment of his tuition was due. A part-time job was out of the question—he was already squeezing in 22 hours of classes so that he could graduate in June.

“I had no other place to turn but KU Endowment,” said Fowler, who lives in Hume, Va.

KU Endowment provided a $200 loan that covered his tuition and got him through the semester. When he graduated, he moved to California to work on the reconstruction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Fowler and his wife, Doris, have taken a step to help more students like himself, providing a $164,000 gift to KU Endowment to create the John P. Fowler II Scholarship. Eligible students will be junior and senior civil engineering majors from Kansas and Missouri.

By the time he retired in 2006, Fowler had led an enviable career. In 1983, he became a project manager for Dewberry, a Fairfax, Va., firm that owns five architecture and engineering companies. His upward career path led him to the president’s seat of one of the companies and in 2000, to that of chief executive officer. Today, Fowler serves on Dewberry’s board of directors.

Throughout his career, Fowler remembered his deep gratitude for KU. “I’m not only grateful to KU Endowment for loaning me the money, but also to the university and the civil engineering school for all it prepared me to be,” Fowler said. “This is just my way of trying to give something back — there’s no way I could ever repay my debt to KU.”

Fowler, who grew up in Kansas City, Mo., said that from a young age he had his heart set on attending KU and majoring in civil engineering. Though funds were tight, he managed to attend the school of his dreams.

He knows all too well the difference financial assistance makes in the lives of college students. “I just hope it this scholarship support means half as much to them as that 200 bucks meant to me,” Fowler said. “That’s all I hope for.”