Development Notes BY LUCY WHITEHEAD BOSSUNG Coordinator of Donor Relations

Events during March and April showed once again why alumni and supporters have helped make the Purdue College of Agriculture a world-class institution.

As March drew near, we were extremely excited to move into our new offices in the David C. Pfendler Hall of Agriculture. Depending on your age, you probably have known our new home as either Ag Hall or Entomology Hall.

The renovated and expanded Pfendler Hall now is home to Ag Development, the Ag Alumni Association and the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources. To celebrate our move, we hosted the Ag Dean's Club on March 6 for a reception and sneak peek at the building.

Just as we completed the move, we dedicated Pfendler Hall on April 17, the same weekend as Spring Fest and Gala Week. The Hromada Grand Foyer of Pfendler Hall, named in honor of Charles and Frankie Hromada for their generous gift for the restoration of the foyer, is where we unveiled the plaques of David C. Pfendler, the building's namesake, and John S. Wright, a forestry benefactor whose endowment funded the majority of the building's expansion and renovation.

Pfendler Hall has become one of the most special buildings on Purdue's campus because of its combination of the new and the old. The expansion allowed for modern learning and laboratory space, including a genomics lab, a molecular tree physical lab, the Butz Auditorium, and much more. The state-of-the-art Butz Auditorium was named for the former Secretary of Agriculture and former Purdue Ag dean, Earl L. Butz, because of his generous gifts and dedicated service to Purdue University.

Pfendler Hall was built in 1901 in the Beaux-arts Neoclassical style. To preserve the ambiance of this historic landmark, the entranceway, the Historic Classroom and the Hromada Grand Foyer were fully renovated and restored to their polished 1901 look. The original ceiling of the Hromada Grand Foyer was carefully lowered for repair and painting before being raised back to its 20-foot-high perch. As the top benefactors for the building's restoration, the Hromadas' contribution has returned the sparkle and luster to a once-tattered building.

If that wasn't enough excitement for April, Purdue Agriculture did it again, setting standards and raising bars, becoming the first school at the university to claim all four endowed chairs allotted to one school by the Bindley Chair Challenge.

The Bindley Chair Challenge allots $22.5 million to create 15 endowed chairs at $1.5 million each throughout the university, but the challenge is that each Bindley chair must be matched by other gifts and pledges to create a similar chair. The Bindley chair money comes from a $52.5 million gift to Purdue in September 2002 from Indianapolis businessman William E. Bindley and his wife, Mary Ann.

The endowed chairs in agriculture are being funded by the family of the late William R. Scholle in the Department of Food Science, the Indiana Soybean Board in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and James and Lois Ackerman in Agricultural Economics. The donors of the fourth endowed chair will be announced this fall. Early in April, the Purdue Board of Trustees awarded the first of the eight endowed chairs in Purdue Agriculture to Bernie Tao, as the Indiana Soybean Board Professor in Soybean Utilization Research.

On your next visit to campus, be sure to stop by Pfendler Hall, the newly landscaped Horticulture gardens and other improvements that reflect how much our alumni and friends appreciate Purdue Ag.

If you would like to know more about becoming a Dean's Club member or would like to see our new offices in Room 108 of Pfendler Hall, stop by anytime or contact us at our new address:

715 West State Street
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2061
(765) 494-8672
(800) 718-0094
Contact Whitehead at whitehead@purdue.edu