LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A relative of celebrated novelist Willa Cather has left $5.8 million in his estate to support various scholarly projects at her alma mater, the University of Nebraska.

The university said in a news release Tuesday that Charles Cather bequeathed the money to the University of Nebraska Foundation for various Cather initiatives at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. They include the Willa Cather Archive and the Cather Project.

Charles Cather was the son of Willa Cather’s brother, James D. Cather, and attended the university in the early 1940s. He died on March 14, 2011.

Willa Cather graduated from the university in 1895 and died in 1947. Her novels such as “O Pioneers” told of Great Plains frontier life. She was awarded a Pulitzer in 1923 for “One of Ours.”