Slape family honors father’s legal legacy with gift to LEAD program

By Lily Parker ’23/25

Dale Slape ’71, after sustaining a work injury that steered him toward a professional path of helping Kansans injured on the job, earned his bachelor’s degree while working full-time and raising a family. Today, the now-retired founding partner of the workers compensation law firm Slape & Howard defines education, in a word, as “freedom.”

Dale and Ruth married shortly after high school, and Dale enrolled at Wichita State University, taking classes during the day and working second or third shift at Boeing and Cessna to support the couple’s growing family. Education was a year-round job for Dale, who took 9 or 10 credit hours each semester and during the summers. He would take home his textbooks to study, and Ruth would read alongside him and discuss the material. “Ruth’s work in and, later, outside the home helped to create the foundation for our family’s achievements and commitment to hard work,” Dale says. “We got it done – together.”

After graduating from Wichita State, Dale pursued his Juris Doctor at the University of Kansas School of Law. He returned to Wichita and founded his practice, which has since become a leader in representing injured Kansas workers. A family endeavor, Ruth served as the firm’s business manager, and his son Phillip joined the practice in 1998.

Dale’s education freed him to build a career that fulfilled him personally, and he passed that value down to his children. “The ability to pursue your passions and interests as a career is the key to achieving a happy life,” he says. “We have always emphasized to our kids that they can go as far as they want to go.”

A family value

Regarding their educations, Dale and his son, Mitchell ’89, share many sentiments. “In our lives, education represented the ticket to all kinds of opportunities and the ability to support your family,” Mitchell says. “As a first-generation student, it was always obvious to us that he believed in the importance of a university education. Education was, without a doubt, a firm family value.”

While attending Wichita State on a Gore Scholarship, Mitchell met his wife, Angela ’90. Highly engaged students, both served in the Student Government Association and as presidents of their Greek life chapters – Mitchell, Delta Upsilon, and Angela, Alpha Phi. After graduating, the two were free to pursue their professional and personal ambitions, leading to Mitchell’s success in the Walmart corporation, where he recently retired as CEO of the company’s operation in South Africa.

In January, the couple honored Dale with a gift to the Legal Education Accelerated Degree (LEAD) program in the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, which allows students to pursue a career in law by receiving their bachelor’s degree at Wichita State and Juris Doctorate from the KU School of Law – the same educational path taken by Dale.

“The program is challenging, and many of these students may have similar circumstances as my father – first-generation, lacking financial support and working their way through law school,” Mitchell says. “We felt strongly that a scholarship would enable these talented, hard-working students to not only focus on but enjoy their studies and go on to be as successful as they can be.”

When Mitchell and Angela shared the news of the gift with Dale, he was speechless. “Truly, I was at a loss for words,” he jokes, “which, for a lawyer, is quite unusual.”

The family hopes the Slape LEAD Scholarship not only honors Dale’s legacy as an attorney, but also offers future generations of students with the boundless opportunities – the freedom – that only an education can provide.