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Gifts in Memory and Honor

A tribute gift is a meaningful way to memorialize a loved one or to honor the impact that a special person has had on your life.

The easiest way to make tribute gifts—gifts in memory or in honor of someone—is online. Before you complete your gift to Purdue, in the ADDITIONAL GIFT INFORMATION section of our online form, check the “In Memory/Honor Of” box and provide the requested information.

Tell us the name of the person you are honoring with your gift and whether a specific fund will be used to honor this person. If you would like Purdue to notify the honoree or a family member, please also indicate the name and address of the individual to be notified.

Common Questions

Choose any fund (including restricted and existing endowment funds) that is particularly meaningful to you or the honoree. For help determining the right fund, call the Purdue for Life Foundation at 800-319-2199.

Or support the Purdue Scholarship Fund, a general scholarship fund that benefits undergraduate students across the West Lafayette campus.

Yes! Through an endowment, you can honor someone and leave a permanent legacy. To establish a new fund or scholarship in memory of a family member, friend, professor, or student, please call the Office of Planned Giving at 765-494-2727 or email us at plangift@prf.org to learn more.

Please provide the following information:

  • The name of the deceased.
  • The name and address of any next of kin where Purdue may send notifications of gifts.
  • If known, the fund or program that the family wishes to support. If you have not decided, an advancement officer can help you select a fund that best honors your loved one.

If you would like the obituary to include a URL to a webpage about the fund, please contact us at annual.giving@purdueforlife.org.

Mailed contributions

The family has designated Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering for memorial contributions in honor of Mary Jane Smith. Please make donations payable to Purdue Foundation and mail to Purdue Foundation, 403 W. Wood Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907. 

Online contributions

The family has designated Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering for memorial contributions in honor of Mary Jane Smith. Please make donations online at connect.purdue.edu/inmemoryofmaryjanesmith.

Purdue for Life Foundation
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Purdue Alumni Association

President’s Council

John Purdue Club

Patsy J. Mellott

BS College of Health and Human Sciences, 1969
Fishers, IN

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.