Lawrence graduates endow music professorship

APPLETON - A couple who graduated from Lawrence University have donated money to establish an endowed professorship in the university’s conservatory of music.

George and Marjorie Olsen Chandler donated $1.5 million, university leaders said. The Chandler Professorship is the fourth endowed professorship established during Lawrence’s six-year, $150 million “More Light” campaign, which runs until October.

Marjorie Chandler, who played piano, graduated from Lawrence in 1944. A psychology major, the Oshkosh native worked as a statistician with Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J., and later worked for the National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. Dept. of Education. She died in 2003.

Her husband George sang in the choir before graduating in 1951. He earned a degree in classics from Lawrence and went on to become an attorney, planner and manager with the Interstate Commerce Commission and the U.S. Dept. of Transportation.

The couple married in 1962.

Music professor Janet Anthony will be the first holder of the endowed professorship, effective July 1.