In honor of his seventieth birthday, 89 friends of Louis E. Kirstein, Boston merchant and holder of an honorary Harvard degree, have given $28,550 to the University to promote scientific medical education, it was announced Tuesday.

In a letter to President Conant, the donors expressed the wish that in recognition of "their affection for him as a man and their admiration of him as a humanitarian," a "Louis E. Kirstein Fellowship" be established in the Medical School to be awarded at the discretion of the President and Fellows of the University.

Mr. Kirstein, vice-president of William Filene's Sons Company, received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Harvard in 1933, with the citation. "A power for good in his city, ever ready for effort in the public weal."

So that additions made be made from time to time, the fund will be kept active in accordance with the wishes of the donors.

They explained that they thought that "Mr. Kirstein could most fittingly be honored if they should act in his own spirit . . . to further the interests of education which are nearest his mind and heart.