KCU Receives $20M Gift For Kansas City, Joplin Campuses

Posted May 21, 2025

Kansas City University has received a $20 million gift to expand its facilities in Kansas City and Joplin.

KCU received the donation from the estate of Dr. Paul Dybedal and his wife, Mary Louise Dybedal, the largest gift from an individual in its history, according to a release Wednesday.

With this latest gift, the couple has contributed over $22.7 million to KCU.

The gift will help facilitate the expansion of the Dybedal Center for Research on the Kansas City campus and establish state-of-the-art laboratory facilities on the Joplin campus. The university will also establish the Paul W. Dybedal, DO, Endowed Chair of Psychiatry to bolster KCU’s psychiatric education and help recruit and retain faculty. Additionally, the Mary L. Dybedal Scholarship Fund will receive an increase to support students.

Dybedal graduated from KCU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1954. He served as a U.S. Army Reserves medical officer and practiced inpatient and forensic psychiatry at Napa State Hospital in California. He served on the KCU Board of Trustees before retiring in 2007.

“KCU gave my father the foundation to build a successful career, and he was dedicated to ensuring that future generations of students have the same opportunities he had,” Paul Dybedal Jr. said in the release. “This gift is his way of continuing to support KCU, a place that gave so much to our family.”

The Dybedal Center for Research also received donation support earlier this year. In March, KCU received $1.25 million, $500,000 of which from the William T. Kemper Foundation, went toward renovating the Dybedal facility.