The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska shall carry into effect the purposes of sections 85-167 to 85-171.

There is appropriated out of any money in the treasury belonging to the General Fund, and not otherwise appropriated, for the creation of the Bessey Memorial Fund the sum of four thousand dollars. The fund shall be and constitute a perpetual memorial fund evidencing the high esteem in which the people of this state hold the memory of the late Professor Charles E. Bessey, who for more than thirty years was closely identified with our state university as professor of botany, Dean of its agricultural college, Dean of Deans, and repeatedly for years its acting chancellor. He was a conspicuous figure in American science and education, one of the great teachers of his age whose work and spirit have been the inspiration of thousands of students, a leader in the development of scientific agriculture, and the value of whose life and service to Nebraska and the West cannot be estimated in terms of money. Any money in the fund available for investment shall be invested by the state investment officer pursuant to the Nebraska Capital Expansion Act and the Nebraska State Funds Investment Act.

The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska is hereby authorized, empowered, and directed to accept for the Bessey Memorial Fund gifts and bequests of money or property, whether absolutely or subject to reservation of the income thereof either for a stated period, for the life of the donor, or for the life or lives of other persons designated.

The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska shall from time to time invest and reinvest the Bessey Memorial Fund, as well as all unused increase or accumulations thereof, and all additions to the fund which may hereafter be made, in the same kind of securities as is now or may hereafter be authorized for investment of funds pursuant to section 72-1246. In all cases hereunder, money shall be paid out by the State Treasurer only on the direction of the Board of Regents, as in cases for the payment of expenses of the university, on appropriation duly made, and all unused funds, together with such securities, shall be in the custody of the State Treasurer.

The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska shall, as the Bessey Memorial Fund is collected, cause to be paid and distributed the income derived from the fund annually to such other of the widows and dependents of deceased professors as shall then have acceptably served the university for a period of at least twenty-five years. In the selection of beneficiaries among whom distribution of the surplus shall be made, the Board of Regents shall exercise its best judgment, taking into consideration all the facts and circumstances of the case.