Purdue Notebook

November 14, 1997

Campus Activities

-- The Purdue Water Ski Team finished seventh during the National Collegiate Waterski Association championships last month. Purdue was the host school for the competition that was conducted in Wilmington, Ill. The University of Southwest Louisiana won the competition that featured slalom, trick and jump contests for men and women. Jeff Surdej, a senior in the School of Pharmacy, tied for sixth in the men's slalom competition.

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Faculty and Staff Honors

-- Barbara Elsbury, assistant dean of students, has been named a Sagamore of the Wabash by Gov. Frank O'Bannon. Elsbury earned the award, the highest honor bestowed by the governor, for her three decades of work in Purdue's Office of the Dean of Students, particularly with the university's Panhellenic Association. During her tenure, about a dozen new sororities have been established, and Purdue became one of the first universities to use computers for bid matching during sorority rush. She received the Helen B. Schleman Gold Medallion in 1988 and has been a leader in the National Association for Women in Education, the American Association of University Women and the Indiana Association for Women in Education.

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Alumni Honors

-- Michael J. Birck, who earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1960, and his wife, Katherine, Hinsdale, Ill., were honored Saturday, Nov. 15, for their gift of a distinguished professorship to the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. A plaque recognizing the Bircks' gift now hangs in the atrium of the Materials and Electrical Engineering Building. The professorship will be filled at a later date. Michael Birck is founder of Tellabs Inc., a leading producer of telecommunications products. He has been named an Outstanding Electrical Engineer by the ECE school, and he has received a Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award from the Schools of Engineering and an honorary doctorate in engineering from the university. He was a member of the national campaign cabinet for Purdue's Vision 21 capital campaign, and he now serves on the Engineering Visiting Committee and the board of the Purdue Research Foundation. Katherine Birck graduated from St. Anthony Hospital's School of Nursing in Terre Haute and is head of nursing at the Hinsdale, Ill., Women's Clinic.

Compiled by J. Michael Willis, (765) 494-0371; e-mail, mike_willis@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu

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