Winter 2002

Gifts support Purdue Agriculture
By Steve Tally and Tom Campbell

DuPont officials tour Purdue's Center for Urban and Industrial Pest Management. (Photo by Tom Campbell)

The second gift is from a New York-based financier who decided to put the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources and its hardwood tree improvement research in his will shortly before he died in March 2000. His gift was prompted by a presentation by Charles Michler, director of the Hardwood Tree Improvement & Regeneration Center.

"Fred van Eck's generosity will elevate our research program in hardwood tree improvement and make Purdue the place to go for research and education in this important area," says Victor Lechtenberg, dean of Purdue Agriculture.

Michler, an adjunct associate professor and USDA Forest Service scientist, spoke to the Walnut Council in August 1999 about the center's use of biotechnology for the improvement of American fine hardwoods. The topic struck a chord with van Eck.

"Several weeks after my presentation in Lexington, he called me and we had a nice conversation," Michler recalls. "Then Fred said, 'I would like to support what you are doing. I would like to endow hardwood tree improvement research at the center.'"

The van Eck bequest included 2,039 acres of redwood timberland in California and 7,200 acres of Douglas fir timberland in Oregon, as well as large timber properties in South Carolina and New Zealand.