Purdue launches Campaign Chicago with $6.7 million in gifts
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University is kicking off the Chicago portion of its fund-raising campaign today (Saturday, April 22) at Union Station in Chicago by announcing $6.7 million in gifts from two corporations and an alumni couple.Campaign Chicago so far has raised $90 million toward its $100 million goal. The campaign is part of the university's $1.5 billion Campaign for Purdue fund-raising effort. The overall Campaign for Purdue has raised $1.33 billion and is scheduled to end in July 2007.
"The response to Campaign Chicago has been nothing short of remarkable and proof that Purdue has always had deep roots in Chicago," said Purdue President Martin C. Jischke. "Coming to Chicago is really like coming home. It is my birthplace, as well as the hometown of nearly 10 percent of our undergraduate students and the home to more than 50,000 of our alumni.
"We are especially grateful for the generous gifts from alumni Bob and Sally Weist, as well as area corporations Tellabs and Motorola. Chicago has been a very, very good partner to Purdue."
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Bob Weist received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Purdue in 1962. He is president of Weist Associates, a biotechnology industry consulting business in Chicago. In 1966, he received a law degree from New York University and in 1981 received an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business Executive Program.
He retired in 1989 from Amgen Inc., where he served as senior vice president, corporate secretary and general counsel. Weist was the founding consultant and initial chief executive officer of Hyseq Inc., a genomics company.
Sally Weist received a bachelor's degree from the College of Liberal Arts in 1961. She is a former elementary school teacher at Edgelea Elementary School in Lafayette, Ind..
Their $750,000 gift to the College of Education will establish the Mary Endres Professorship in Elementary Education. Through the George E. Goodwin challenge, their gift will be matched dollar for dollar, and the combined total of $1.5 million will fund the chair.
Goodwin was a civil engineering alumnus who died in 2002. Gifts made by Goodwin during his lifetime created an endowment that is providing the matching gifts for the Endres professorship and up to 19 other new commitments on campus.
The professorship is named after Chicago-area educator Endres, who was one of the founders of Purdue's elementary education program. She began at the university in 1955 and became the first director of the Purdue Educational Research Center. During her 17 years at Purdue, she took leaves of absence to establish teacher-training programs in Nigeria and Pakistan and to establish parent and early childhood programs in African-American communities in Mississippi, Georgia, Indiana and Ohio in the 1960s. She died in 2005.
"This is only the third endowed professorship in the college, so this is wonderful news for the College of Education and its elementary education program," said Dean George Hynd. "Mary Endres was Purdue's first faculty member in elementary education and was instrumental in making it a more comprehensive school of education. This is a wonderful way to honor what she did for our college."
The other endowed professorships are the James F. Ackerman Distinguished Professor of Social Studies Education and the Jean Adamson Stanley Faculty Chair in Literacy.
Endres also was an inspiration for Sally Weist, who was studying elementary education during the time Endres was on staff.
"Mary Endres was a mentor to me during my years at Purdue," Sally Weist said. "I was on a scholarship when I came to Purdue, and she found a part-time job on campus for me, which I kept all four years. She was almost like a second mother to me, always there to bounce ideas off."
Sally Weist said her mother and two sisters were teachers, and one of her daughters also is a teacher, so education has always been close to her heart. In addition, the couple established the Weist Foundation, a private family charitable foundation focusing on supporting innovative approaches to education.
"There's been a lot of focus on middle and high schools lately, but I feel that supporting teachers in the earlier grades is vital," she said. "I'm hoping that this professorship will really help attract teachers into this area."
The Weists also have contributed to the Boilermaker Aquatic Center, the chemical engineering capital campaign to support the Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering, the Spurgeon Golf Training Center, Intercollegiate Athletics and the College of Education. In 2001 they established the Bob and Sally Weist Golf Scholarship.
"Sally and I were high school sweethearts at Morgan Park High School in Chicago, went to Purdue together and got married while we were there," said Bob Weist. "We've had a lot of success in the business world, and we couldn't think of a better way to give back than to support the Chicago campaign."
Tellabs Foundation, based in Naperville, Ill., is being honored for its gifts to the Campaign for Purdue totaling $2.7 million.
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He is a member of the Purdue board of trustees, and he and his wife, Kay, contributed $30 million for the Birck Nanotechnology Center, $5.5 million for the Boilermaker Aquatic Center, $3 million for the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex, and $2.3 million to create a professorship and endow scholarship support for the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
In July 2003, Tellabs awarded Purdue's Center for Wireless Systems and Applications a grant to establish the Tellabs Masters Assistantship Program in Wireless Systems Engineering. Since that time, Tellabs has contributed more than $390,000 toward this program, which is in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Tellabs also contributed $300,000 to the $20 million Richard and Patricia Lawson Computer Science Building, which is scheduled for completion this summer, with classes to be held there this fall. During the 2001 academic year, Tellabs contributed more than $2 million in equipment to the Department of Computer and Information Technology located in the College of Technology.
Motorola Foundation, based in Schaumburg, Ill., is being honored for its contributions to the Campaign for Purdue totaling more than $1 million.
Motorola contributed $500,000 to the Center for Wireless Systems and Applications for the creation of the Wireless Vertically Integrated Projects Program. The program creates integrated teams of faculty, both undergraduate and graduate, that work together on long-term, large-scale projects. Each team focuses on challenges in research, technology development and applications in wireless systems that are identified in partnerships with federal agencies, industry and not-for-profit organizations.
Additionally, Motorola has contributed to a variety of programs in the Krannert School of Management, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Women in Engineering program, Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS), several student organizations and the Department of Computer Science in the College of Science.
Writer: Kim Medaris, (765) 494-6998, kmedaris@purdue.edu
Sources: Murray Blackwelder, Purdue's senior vice president for advancement, (765) 496-2144, mblackwelder@purdue.edu
George Hynd, (765) 494-2336, ghynd@purdue.edu
PHOTO CAPTION:
Robert and Sally Weist, from left, are welcomed to the stage prior to receiving a Pinnacle Award from university President Martin C. Jischke during Saturday's (April 22) Purdue Day in Chicago. The event, which was the kickoff of the Chicago portion of the $1.5 billion Campaign for Purdue, took place in Union Station. (Purdue photo/Mark Simons)
A publication-quality photo is available at https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2006/sojka-horses.jpg
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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