1.26.22

Kay Sommerfeld’s estate gift will honor her mother and her own love of music

As Kay Sommerfeld contemplated pledging a significant estate gift to endow scholarships at Wichita State, memories of her mother washed over her.

Lorene Rupert had always yearned for a college education, but finances and family responsibilities made that dream impractical. She devoted herself to being a wife, mother and homemaker, then returned to work as a bookkeeper so her daughter could pursue her own dreams of attending college.

“I so admired her for going back to work to pay for my degree,” Sommerfeld says. “As I was growing up, she taught me the importance of a young woman acquiring the knowledge and skills to be self-supporting.”

That’s why one of the scholarships Sommerfeld’s estate gift will endow will be named the Lorene Rupert Scholarship in Business.

“I wanted to pay it forward so that other young women will have the opportunity to acquire a college education in memory of my mother,” Sommerfeld says.

Paying it forward is what motivated Sommerfeld to pledge the estate gift, which also will endow two scholarships in music education and a fellowship for a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in music with an emphasis on conducting. Those will carry her name.

“Music has been very important in my life,” she says. “I’ve always said that food nourishes my body but it’s the fine arts that nourish my soul.”

Though she earned her degree from the University of Kansas, she’s a longtime supporter of her hometown university. “I’m a Wichita native and I’ve always supported the educational opportunities that WSU offers. I felt it was time to do something for tomorrow’s students.”

Sommerfeld worked most of her adult life as a technical publications editor for federal agencies, including the Forest Service in Portland, Oregon, and the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington D.C. She is now retired and lives in Wichita.

Sommerfeld is known for creating and knitting WuShock finger puppets and donating or selling them to WSU personnel, students and others who request them. She estimates she has knitted about 500 so far.

“I love bringing joy to the people who receive them,” she says. “That has been a big connection to Wichita State for me.”

If you would like to learn more about establishing an estate gift, contact Mike Lamb, WSU Foundation vice president, at 316.978.3804 or mike.lamb@wichita.edu.