Robert and Lois Hanzlik have created Peaslee’s first permanently
endowed scholarship fund in the amount of $100,000. This permanent
endowment will provide annual scholarships totaling $5000 per year, every
year, going forward. This foundational grant is also intended to serve as a
catalyst for the continued growth of permanently endowed funding that will
support future generations of Peaslee students.
Bob and Lois Hanzlik both grew up in working class families in modest
neighborhoods in Chicago. They met and became friends in high school,
eventually getting married in their final year of college at Southern Illinois
University in 1965. Lois majored in English, and Bob in Chemistry. When
Bob went to Graduate school at Stanford, Lois worked on campus as a
secretary in the Comptroller’s office.
After Bob completed his Ph.D. he and Lois lived in England for one year
while Bob was a NSF Postdoctoral Fellow. Bob then joined the faculty of
the Medicinal Chemistry Department at KU in 1971, a position he held for
49 years until he retired in 2020. As Bob’s career in teaching and research
grew Lois supported him by running their household while gardening avidly
and recording books on tape for Audio Reader, the latter affording her an
enjoyable 32-year career as a volunteer.
While teaching at KU Bob came to realize that many of the experiences
and opportunities he had as a youth had simply not been available to the
students he met in class – the times had changed! Many of these
experiences involved building, disassembling or fixing things by working
with various tools and materials. The courses taught at Peaslee Tech
provide a valuable alternative to college for those seeking a good non-
academic career. Such individuals are badly needed if the U.S. is to
maintain its position in the world as a land of opportunity. The Bob and
Lois Hanzlik Scholarship Fund is intended to help young people today
prepare for rewarding, fulfilling careers. Everyone has heard that the first
Apple computer was built in a garage by two college dropouts, but
someone had to build that garage!