LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Dr. Allan and Donna Lansing’s estate made a $3.6 million gift to Bellarmine University. 

With this donation, the Lansing family has given more than $10 million to the university, which makes them the largest donors in the school’s history.

The newest donation is going to be directed toward nursing and allied health, the men’s basketball program, the men’s baseball program, the Clinical Recitation Initiative for Student Enrichment (RISE) program and the Bellarmine Fund, “which supports all students and overall academic excellence.”

“We are so grateful to the Lansing and Flowers families for their generous support of our students,” said Bellarmine President Susan M. Donovan. “The Lansings’ love of this community launched a partnership between Bellarmine and Norton Healthcare that has grown many times over. Their generosity has changed the lives of countless students and patients throughout our city — and with this most recent gift, will continue to do so for many years to come. In addition, their support of our men’s basketball and baseball teams will help us to provide our student-athletes with what they need to succeed, athletically and academically, at the NCAA Division I level.”  

Dr. Allan Lasing was a heart surgeon and Bellarmine trustee. Bellarmine University’s nursing school is named Donna and Allan Lansing School of Nursing and Clinical Sciences to honor the couple.

“Bellarmine and Bellarmine students were always important to our parents,” said the Lansings’ daughter Michele Lansing Flowers, the executor of their estate.

Flowers and her siblings, Peter and Ann Lansing, all pursued health care careers.

“Our father was especially partial to the nursing program, because he said he could never have done it without the nurses who cared for his patients 24/7. They were an integral part of patients’ recovery; their emotional and physical support system. He may have fixed his patients’ hearts, but the nurses made them whole again,” Flowers said.

The Lansings were originally from Canada but moved to Louisville in 1963. The couple started working with Bellarmine in the early 1980s. Dr. Allan Lasing served on the Bellarmine Board of Trustees from 1983 to 2004. He was a term as chair from 1987 to 1988. Dr. Allan Lasing received an honorary doctorate from the school in 1985. He was named “King of Hearts” at Bellarmine’s Knight of Knights event in 2004.

The couple established the Lansing Scholars Program at Bellarmine. The program helps cover a select group of students pursuing degrees in nursing and health sciences. The students then work at Norton Healthcare after they graduate. Loans are eligible to be forgiven.

“We are so appreciative of all the ways that Dr. and Mrs. Lansing’s generosity has benefited our students,” said Scott Self, Bellarmine’s vice president for development and alumni relations. “We also appreciate their foresight in making planned gifts to the university and are delighted to honor their legacy at Bellarmine.” 

The Lansings also donated a 130-year-old house and 3.2 acres for the school to renovate and turn into the President’s Home in 1998. In 2015, the Lansings gifted their home to the school. The school sold the house in 2022 after Dr. Allan Lasing died.