SLIPPERY ROCK — Jeanne Powell Furrie, a 1945 Slippery Rock University physical education graduate and longtime university benefactor, has bequeathed the largest legacy gift in SRU’s history — $735,000 so far — as part of her estate.

The gift total is expected to increase once final paperwork is completed.

The gift was announced today by SRU.

The funds have been earmarked for the Jeanne P. Furrie Scholarship fund at SRU with the first scholarships to be presented at next year’s SRU Alumni Association Spring Recognition and Awards Banquet.

Before Furrie’s gift, SRU’s largest legacy gift totaled $485,000.

Furrie of Monroeville, Allegheny County, died April 14, 2013, at age 89.

The gift was announced and family members were recognized at SRU’s Spring Celebration last week honoring SRU scholarship recipients and donors.

Furrie was a lifelong member of the SRU Alumni Association and served on its board of directors. In 2001, she was named a member of the SRU Athletic Hall of Fame for field hockey, a club sport in her days at SRU.

She was a member of the Ruby Lifetime Giving Club at SRU.

In 2007, Furrie received the alumni association’s Past Presidents’ Service Award, given annually by the association board to recognize an alumnus who makes the greatest overall contribution to the association.

She and her husband, Henry Furrie, were married 49 years. Henry Furrie, an educator at Gateway High School where he was its first athletic director and health and swimming teacher, died in 1998.

The Henry J. Furrie Scholarship Fund honors him and provides scholarships to Gateway High School students.