In the largest gift in the history of Purdue University’s College of Liberal Arts, the university has accepted a collection of 74 sculptures by prominent French impressionist artist Edgar Degas as a donation from Chicago businessman Avrum Gray (ME’56). The collection is valued at more than $21 million with a market value of as much as $52 million.
In the largest monetary contribution ever made to Purdue’s School of Management/Business, the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation has committed $50 million to Purdue to name the undergraduate institute in the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business. The institute will be named the Bruce White Undergraduate Institute.
Purdue’s next big move in a decadelong series of major strategic investments will honor a celebrated president who led transformative change during his tenure, as plans for the state-of-the-art Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business were approved by the university’s Board of Trustees. The reimagined school will prepare tomorrow’s leaders and entrepreneurs, grounding them in the hallmarks of a Purdue education.
Raytheon Technologies Corp., one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world, has committed $4 million to Purdue for a named chair position in the university’s reimagined Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business. This new position will support faculty leadership, discovery, and engagement within business and STEM intersections.
The Purdue Board of Trustees has approved the naming of the Evan and Sue Ann Werling Comparative Oncology Research Center in recognition of the donors’ $10 million gift. The university will use the Werlings’ gift to establish the new center, fund the Evan and Sue Ann Werling Professorship of Comparative Oncology, and create an endowment to provide unrestricted support for promising cancer research and clinical trials.
Purdue University and Accenture have agreed to a five-year commitment supporting Purdue’s mission to prepare a next-generation smart-manufacturing workforce, including funding for the Accenture Smart Factory and the Accenture Smart Manufacturing Scholars Program.
Purdue University and Eli Lilly and Company are establishing an innovative new pharmaceutical manufacturing scholarship program and have renewed their strategic research collaboration in a series of moves that will expand their impact in Indiana and improve lives on a global scale.
The Purdue Board of Trustees ratified eight faculty positions, awarded two posthumous degrees, and approved resolutions of appreciation for friends of the University.
It was a record year for the John Purdue Club in 2021-22, with an all-time best $83 million raised in pledged commitments and cash donations in support of Purdue Athletics. That level of generosity and ambition has positioned the Boilermakers to energetically launch into the 2022-23 season amid the ever-changing landscape of college athletics.
Fifty years ago, Helen Bass Williams, the first African American professor at Purdue, played a leading role in establishing the first learning center on campus. Purdue’s Board of Trustees recently approved changing the name of that facility to the Helen Bass Williams Academic Success Center.
