LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A $6.9 million gift from a late geologist and his wife will be used to help University of Kansas researchers better understand early human life in the Americas.

Joseph and Maude Ruth Cramer established the Odyssey Archaeological Research Fund at the university in 2002 with a $1 million gift. The additional $6.9 million was recently received after their deaths.

The KU Endowment said in a news release that the gift will benefit research by the Kansas Geological Survey and the university’s archaeology program.

Cramer grew up in Wichita and graduated from the University of New Mexico. His was a petroleum geologist, but he had a lifetime interest in archaeology and a passion for searching for the earliest people in the Americas.

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