(AP) — A drive is underway to raise $5 million to honor the late founder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine with an endowed faculty position.

Cardiologist E. Grey Dimond died in November at the age of 94. The university says that graduates of the school and longtime friends of Dimond are leading the fundraising effort.

They’ve received a $500,000 gift from Jerald and Patricia Burton to kick off the drive. The committee hopes to raise the rest of the money by Dec. 8, 2014, which would have been Dimond’s 96th birthday.