Janice Strauss (NUTR '69), whose career began as a food scientist, then through several twists, landed in the world of antique furniture, says she can't imagine what life would've been without the opportunity of a Purdue education. Photo provided
The vast majority of us — nearly 73 percent, according to a 2010 U.S. Census survey — work in fields unrelated to our undergraduate majors.
That has been the story for nutrition science alumna Janice Strauss (NUTR '69), whose career began as a food scientist at General Foods, but then took several twists that ended with her passion for both the technical and the aesthetic — antique furniture.
"It's often said that your degree will help you get your first job," Strauss says. "I helped develop new food products for the first two-and-a-half years, where I worked with the marketing and marketing research areas and learned the business side of the products I knew technically. I advanced through several marketing positions at General Foods, and later, Richardson-Merrell Inc. I loved running a business and I wanted my own."
Proving her can-do spirit, she established New Product Blueprints, serving the strategic marketing needs of large corporations.
"I could have done it forever, but the travel got to be too much. I was meeting myself coming and going," Strauss says. "I also realized that I had a real calling to do something more aesthetic."
A catalyst for her choice of a more aesthetic path was the saltbox house built in 1734 that she and her husband, Ted Strauss, bought in 1977. Located on the New York/Connecticut border, the couple's restored home is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
The house required nearly all of her free time and plenty of elbow grease, Strauss recalls. "When we bought it, it was overrun with animals and fungus on the ceilings. On weekends we would come with putty knives and paintbrushes," she says. "As I immersed myself in the arduous restoration of the house, I became increasingly interested in antiques, beginning our collection to furnish the house."
She later founded Janice F. Strauss American Antiques, a dealership emphasizing investment-quality 18th century furniture and decorative accessories.
It was a moment of clarity for Strauss, who found herself grateful, again, for what she learned at Purdue.
"Every time I've made shifts in my career, I would ask myself, 'Can I really do this?' And education gave me the ability to say, 'Yes, I can do that because I know how to muster the resources to make it possible.'"
Now mostly retired from her business, Strauss has more time to pursue another passion — sailing. She and her husband own a 34-foot sloop named Eagle's Wing.
Both are also passionate benefactors for their respective alma maters. In March 2015, the Department of Nutrition Science launched a $16 million campaign to raise funds for research, professorships and new scholarships as well as to create an endowment to establish a firm foundation for the future. Strauss and her husband provided the lead gift for the capital campaign, which coincides with the 110th anniversary year of nutrition science at Purdue and runs through 2017. Read HHS News
"We both believe that there's no better use of money," says Strauss, who attended Purdue on a University scholarship. "What else can you do that's going to have an impact on somebody else's life other than education?
"I can't imagine what my life would've been had I not had the opportunity of my Purdue education."
