IU loses Kelley school benefactor

A funeral service will be held today at 10 a.m. at the First Friends Church in Kokomo for the man we can thank for introducing Steakburgers to the market.\nIndiana businessman, philanthropist and IU alumnus Estel Wood Kelley passed away Friday in Indianapolis at the age of 86. A 1939 IU graduate, he died at the Krannert Pavilion of the IU Medical Center after a long battle with cancer.\nKelley, founder and managing general partner of Kelley & Partners Limited and chairman of the popular Steak 'n Shake chain, is best remembered within the IU community for his contributions to the IU-Bloomington Kelley School of Business, which is named after the Sharpsville, Ind., native. \nKelley gave $23 million to the Bloomington School of Business in 1997 in order to establish a scholarship program and to attract nationally endowed professors to the school, like current Kelley Chair of Business Administration, Raymond Burke, who was a faculty member at Harvard University Business School before he took the position at IU. \n"Mr. Kelley was a long-time supporter of the school, someone who wanted to give back to IU by supporting and furthering its academic excellence," said Bruce Jaffee, associate dean of academics at the Kelley School. \nIn addition to donating money to the University, Kelley has served on the IU Board of Directors since 1969.\n"He had not only given money, but given up his time and had generously volunteered his expertise," said Carol Gross, an assistant secretary at the IU Foundation, a philanthropic organization.\nKelley gave his donations to not just one area, but wherever the University needed it, Gross said.\n"He was very friendly and approachable to students, staff and faculty, and often helped them in finding jobs and internships," Jaffee said. \nKelley also contributed time and money to the IU-Kokomo campus and most notably to its business school, where he sat on the school's advisory board. \n"He helped provide insight on strategy direction and curriculum planning for the school," said Niranjan Pati, dean of the IU-Kokomo School of Business. \nKelley graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree in business administration from IU-Bloomington in 1939. He was also the president of the School of Business student body, president of the student YMCA, chair of IU Sing, founder of the IU Accounting Club and a member of several student and academic fraternities. \n"I was lucky in that I had a number of people at IU who promoted me to big Eastern corporations, and that's how I got chances to prove myself," Kelley said in 1997. \nKelly said in 1997 that he wanted to give back to society and he did that by choosing to support a few special things, including IU. \nThe Kelley family will be holding a memorial service in mid-September in Indianapolis.