NKU Chase Law Receives Historic Gift To Support Lunsford Academy

February 22, 2022 - Business innovator and investor W. Bruce Lunsford has made the largest gift to Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law in its 129-year history. 

Lunsford, who graduated from Chase in 1974 and went on to create leading healthcare companies, real estate development firms and a Hollywood production company, is donating $3 million to the law school to broaden the impact of the W. Bruce Lunsford Academy for Law, Business + Technology. The Academy was created in 2013 with a $1 million gift and has grown in impact since. Lunsford has now donated more than $4 million to education programs at Chase.

The Lunsford Academy is an honors program at Chase that attracts top-tier students and advances hands-on and conceptual training in applications of law, business and technology that are increasingly inter-related in a digital economy. The Academy also partners with northern Kentucky and Cincinnati enterprises to enable them to utilize the expertise of Lunsford Scholars in internships and job placements. 

“My initial vision was to provide expanded opportunities for stellar students to better prepare them to thrive in the evolving world of technology and business practices,” Bruce Lunsford said. “Under the outstanding leadership of Dean Daar and the team at Chase, I have been extremely pleased with the successful outcomes that the students have achieved, and I look forward to the continuing evolution of the Academy in the years ahead.” 

The $3 million gift will most immediately allow the Academy, among other initiatives, to increase Lunsford Fellowships for students working in the technology sector, broaden their entrepreneurial opportunities and expand geographically the networking and placement opportunities for students and graduates. 

“The Lunsford Academy provides our students with unique and innovative instruction and experiential opportunities that prepare them for exciting career paths,” Judith Daar, the Ambassador Patricia L. Herbold Dean and professor of law at Chase, said. “We are exceedingly grateful to our inspirational alumnus whose lifetime engagement with Chase will transform the law school and the lives of our students for many years to come.”

“Mr. Lunsford’s generosity continues to be transformative and inspirational for Chase and NKU, and we are grateful for his continued support,” NKU President Ashish Vaidya said. “This gift will allow the Lunsford Academy to continue to be a program of distinction that will prepare law students to be successful community stewards in the fields of law, business and technology.” 

Lunsford is chairman and chief executive officer of Lunsford Capital LLC, a private investment company headquartered in Louisville, Ky., chairman of Arcadia Communities LLC, a Louisville-based real estate development company for senior living communities, and chairman of the board of Sentry Health, an integrated health solutions enterprise. 

He began his career after graduation from Chase as a lawyer in the Cincinnati firm of Keating, Muething & Klekamp, and later served as Kentucky Secretary of Commerce, when he was involved in the creation of a Delta Air Lines passenger hub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and a UPS cargo hub at Louisville International Airport.

The Lunsford gift will be presented for approval to the NKU Board of Regents at their next meeting, scheduled for March 16, 2022. 

To learn more about the Lunsford Academy, click here. 

About Chase College of Law: The Salmon P. Chase College of Law was founded in 1893 in Cincinnati as the third night law school in the nation and following its merger in 1972 with Northern Kentucky University has offered both full-time day and part-time evening programs. It is a long-time American Bar Association-approved law school. For more information, visit chaselaw.nku.edu.