Purdue News

May 10, 1999 Birck named to Purdue Board of Trustees WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A Chicago-area alumnus has been appointed as member of the Purdue University Board of Trustees. Download Photo Here Michael Birck Michael Birck, of Hinsdale, Ill., who is the president, chief executive officer and a founder of Tellabs Inc., was named by Purdue Alumni Association officers to complete the one year remaining on the term of Bob F. Jesse, of Fort Wayne, Ind. The appointment is effective July 1. All members of the Purdue Alumni Association will be eligible to vote in an election in 2000 to fill the trustee position for a three-year-term. Jesse, the chairman and chief executive officer of Indiana Construction Corp., has decided to leave the Purdue board after serving for 23 years. He was its chairman from 1989 to 1993, and since then the chairman of the Trustee Executive Committee. Download Photo Here Bob Jesse "We are grateful for Bob Jesse's long and dedicated service to Purdue, and pleased that the alumni have selected another outstanding leader to succeed him," said President Steven C. Beering. "Mike Birck is one of our country's most accomplished business leaders and a Purdue alumnus with a strong commitment to the university." Birck has held leadership roles with the Purdue President's Council, from which he won the distinguished service award in 1996. He was a member of the national campaign cabinet for Vision 21, the university's fund-raising effort that brought in $332 million private support to the university. In 1993 Birck and his wife, Katherine, established a $2.3 million endowment in Purdue's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Income from the endowment supports undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships and an academic chair in electrical and computer engineering. The Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex is named for the Bircks in recognition of their $3 million donation that helped support major improvements on the two 18-hole courses and the practice area. Birck received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Purdue in 1960 and a master's in electrical engineering from New York University in 1962 while working at AT&T's Bell Laboratories. He left the firm in 1966 and worked for two Chicago-area telecommunications companies before helping found Tellabs in 1975. Tellabs Inc., which makes specialty telecommunications equipment and is based in Lisle, Ill., employs more than 3,100 workers, many of them Purdue graduates. In 1991 Michael Birck received the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award from the Purdue Schools of Engineering, and in 1995 he received a Purdue honorary doctor of engineering degree. Jesse, a native and resident of Fort Wayne, Ind., enrolled at Purdue after World War II service in the merchant marine. He received his civil engineering degree in 1949. He also is president of the Indiana University Purdue University Foundation at Fort Wayne, and the Indiana University Purdue University at Fort Wayne Advisory Board. Jesse serves on the boards of directors of several corporations. He is a 1988 recipient of the Sagamore of the Wabash. Writer: Jeanne V. Norberg, (765) 494-2084; jeanne_norberg@purdue.edu< Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page