Established in 2005, the Purdue Alumni Association Boilermaker Pride Award seeks to recognize a club leader, regardless of his/her official connection to Purdue, who has contributed time and service to the alumni club program and to the Purdue Alumni Association over a significant period of time.
Nominations open May 1, 2022 and will close May 31, 2022. Nominations made in the past 5 years will also be considered.
Consideration should be given to the nominee’s contribution in the following ways:
Nominations may be made by any person or group affiliated with Purdue University — students, faculty, staff, or alumni. The award will be chosen by the Boilermaker Pride Award Committee. The committee shall include 3-5 people from alumni clubs and campus representatives who will choose one in-state and one out-of-state recipient to receive the award. If no qualified candidates are nominated, the award will not be given. Nominee names will be kept in the pool for five years, after which a new nominee form will need to be submitted.
Winners and their nominators will be notified after June 15.
Winners will receive their award and recognized during the Alumni Leader and Volunteer Conference July 27 – 29, 2022.
Patsy earned a bachelor’s degree in food and nutrition in business from Purdue in 1969, in addition to an MBA in food marketing from Michigan State University in 1970. She retired from Kraft Foods in 2006 after 36 years in corporate food marketing and marketing communications management.
A community volunteer, Patsy serves on the Women’s Fund of Central Indiana Advisory Board and the Purdue College of Health and Human Sciences Dean’s Leadership Council, in addition to the President’s Council Advisory Board. She is a former member of the Health and Human Sciences Alumni Board. Patsy held several offices from 2006 through 2013, including president and treasurer. She serves her community’s Discover Indianapolis Club in Fishers, holding several leadership roles for over 10 years.
Patsy has received several honors, including the Purdue University Nutrition Science Department Hall of Fame recipient in 2009 and the Purdue University College of Health and Human Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016. She also received the college’s Gold and Black Award in 2016, an honor reserved for donors who have moved the college forward by committing exceptional financial resources.
In addition to endowing two scholarships, the Patsy J. Mellott Scholarship and Patsy J. Mellott HHS Scholarship, she established the Patsy J. Mellott Teaching Innovation Award in the College of Health and Human Sciences in 2013. In 2015, she endowed the Patsy J. Mellott Women’s Tennis Coach Performance Award. She is a lead donor in the Christine M. Ladisch Faculty Leadership Award and the Purdue Women’s Network Virginia C. Meredith Scholarship for the College of Health and Human Sciences.