An Oregon State University alumnus who surrounded himself with books has surprised his alma mater by giving OSU's Valley Library the vast majority of his estate.

Franklin A. McEdward, a 1957 OSU electrical engineering graduate, left $2.6 million to the university. His gift, designated primarily for OSU's Valley Library, will fund a new professorship dedicated to undergraduate learning initiatives and a new reading room.

A portion of his estate will also support the College of Engineering, naming a lounge in the Kelley Engineering Center.

McEdward died in May 2007 at the age of 82. For the past 40 years, McEdward, who worked as a Boeing test engineer in Seattle, lived next door to Sam Rondos, whom he befriended and - unbeknownst to Rondos - named executor of his estate.

"I had absolutely no idea," Rondos said. "When Frank fell and broke an arm a few years ago, I asked if he had a will, but he just laughed. He never married or had children, so I suggested he give whatever he had to his school, because he loved books and learning so much. I had no idea what his estate was worth or that I was the executor."

McEdward's gift, the second-largest from an individual ever given to the OSU library, also took the OSU faculty and staff by surprise.

Almost half of the gift will establish the Franklin A. McEdward Endowed Professorship for Undergraduate Learning Initiatives. The inaugural holder will be Anne-Marie Deitering, an OSU assistant professor of library science, who is well-known for her research into how today's students learn and access information.

"The way students learn today is very different from a few years ago - from multi-tasking and small-group learning to online social networking," Deitering said. "That completely changes how students use the library. Today, for example, a library has to accommodate moving furniture for use by small discussion groups. Supporting these changes means we have to rethink the learning spaces we put in a library."

The gift is included in the Campaign for OSU, the university's first comprehensive fundraising effort, which seeks to raise $625 million. More than 20 positions have been established through the campaign.