When the Lieurance apple didn't fall far from the tree, Wichita State University reaped the benefit.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Thurlow W. Lieurance Jr. ’41 contributed to the university, to his community and to his nation in his own distinctive ways.
After graduating from the University of Wichita with a bachelor’s degree in political science, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry and served in the European Theater during World War II, landing in Normandy on D-Day.
Back in the States, he worked for Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. for 34 years in Wichita, St. Louis and Topeka, Kan., where he retired from the company in 1979 as a division personnel manager. The family man served as president of the Topeka Symphony Board and was a member of the Kansas Woodturners and the Midwest Saw Dusters Clubs.
In addition to donating to WSU a collection of rare Native American flutes collected by his father, who was a noted composer and former WU dean of fine arts, Lieurance Jr. spent many years serving as a consultant to Cerebral Palsy of Topeka Inc. and volunteering at the Capper Foundation Work Center in Topeka. It gave him immense satisfaction to be able to help provide the center’s disabled clients a place to work and be productive.
He died Feb. 21 in Lincoln, Kan.
