Purdue University History The University Boilermakers

Established	1869
School type	Public, Land grant
President	Martin C. Jischke
Location	West Lafayette, IN, USA (Main Campus)
Enrollment	69,050
Faculty	14,052
Revenue	US $1.12 billion
Endowment	US $ 233 million
Campuses	18,370 acres (74 km²)
Sports	18 Division I NCAA teams
Mascots	The Boilermaker Specials, Purdue Pete
Website	www.purdue.edu

Purdue University is a state wide, public land-grant university system with its main campus located in West Lafayette, Indiana and other campuses in Calumet and Fort Wayne, among others. With 18,370 acres (74 km²) [1] and over 69,000 students, Purdue is one of the largest university systems in the United States. It is particularly noted for its schools of engineering and agriculture, and as of recently, for its school of business. The state of Indiana's school of veterinary medicine is at Purdue. Purdue also has three campuses that are affiliated with Indiana University. Purdue's School of Technology also has seven satellite locations throughout Indiana.

1 History

Classes at Purdue began in 1874Events January 1 New York City annexes The Bronx January 23 Marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria, to Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, only daughter of Emperor Alexander III of Russia. January Signing of the Pangkor Tr but it was not founded by philanthropist John Purdue , as is commonly believed. The state of Indiana sought a location to establish its land-grant university, and John Purdue offered $150,000 and 100 acres (400,000 m²) of land near the city of LafayetteLafayette is a city located in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 56,397. The city is the county seat of Tippecanoe County 6. Ten-fold Olympic champion Ray Ewry and Guns n' Roses singer Axl Rose were born. The university was named for him because of his generous donation. Legend has it that the Purdue gift carried the stipulation that all permanent university buildings must be brick or the entire 100 acres (400,000 m²) reverts to John Purdue's heirs. This legend cannot be substantiated.

2 The University

Purdue's West Lafayette campus is one of the largest in the nation and the single largest university campus in the state of Indiana. Purdue University's traditional strengths have been in agriculture and engineering. Many of the university's other schools have gained repute over the years.

Krannert School of Management ranks 8^th among public universities according to Business Week
Krannert School of Management 's MBAMaster of Business Administration MBA is a tertiary degree in business management. It is one of the few master's degrees with more prestige than the associated doctor's degree. Given the recent interest in the MBA degree, there have been growing concerns was ranked 1^st by regional corporate recruiters in the Wall Street Journal
Purdue's College of Engineering ranks 8^th in the nation for its undergraduate business program
Purdue's industrial/manufacturing program ranks 2^nd in the nation
The School of Industrial Engineering was 3^rd by US News and World Report
Purdue's School of Technology is the largest producer of engineering technology graduates among public universities in the United States
Purdue was the birthplace of the nation’s first academic program in computer science.

3 Boilermakers

Purdue's athletic teams are called the Purdue Boilermakers. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A, and in the Big Ten Conference. The team name purports to have come from a former practice of illegally employing industrial workers for its football team. Another story of the name's origin is that it was a derogatory name conferred by another Indiana school, Wabash College, in order to insult the engineering students for being "rude mechanicals."

Purdue's traditional rivals are Big Ten colleagues the Indiana University Hoosiers and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from the Big East conference. Purdue and IU battle on the football field for the Old Oaken Bucket , an annual fight for supremacy. Purdue leads the series first played in 1925, 66-35-6.

4 Purdue and its alumni

Its alumni have a strong relationship with NASA and the space program. Purdue has produced 22 astronauts, including the first and last humans to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan respectively. Two alumni, "Gus" Grissom and Roger Chaffee, were killed on the launchpad in the tragic accident that befell Apollo 1. Other alumni have flown space shuttles and boarded the Russian Mir space module.

4.1 Famous alumni

George Ade - humorist
Chuck Armstrong - President and COO of the Seattle Mariners
Joe L. Barton - Congressman (6th District of Texas)
Birch Bayh - US Senator
Drew Brees - quarterback for the San Diego Chargers
Michael J. Burke - CEO of Tellabs
Earl L. Butz - former Secretary of Agriculture
Ward Cunningham ( Master's degree), inventor of the wiki concept
Carolyn Curiel - ambassador to Belize
Len Dawson - Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback with the Kansas City Chiefs
Thomas (Tom) J. Engibous - current Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Texas Instruments Incorporated
Michael L. Eskew - CEO of UPS
Kirk Fordice - Governor of Mississippi
David Fuente - CEO of Office Depot
Gen Fukunaga - President of FUNimation
Bob Griese - Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback with the Miami Dolphins
Brian Lamb - Chairman and CEO of C-SPAN
Sun Liren - Chinese Nationalist General who excelled in Burma Campaign during the World War II
John T. McCutcheon, 1889 - American cartoonist
Ben Roy Mottelson, 1947 - Nobel laureate in physics, 1975
Ian Murdock - founder of the Debian project
Bart Peterson - Mayor of Indianapolis
Edward Mills Purcell, 1933 - Nobel laureate in physics, 1952
Orville Redenbacher - popcorn entrepreneuer with a bow-tie
Donald B. Rice - former Secretary of the Air Force
Kenneth A. Shaw - president of Syracuse University
James J. Stukel , 1959 - president of the University of Illinois
Booth Tarkington - novelist
Gordon Teter - former CEO of Wendy's
Charles R. Weaver - former CEO of Clorox
John Wooden - Basketball Hall of Famer.

4.2 Alumni astronauts

Neil Armstrong, 1955 - The first man to walk on the moon
John Blaha - flew on Mir in 1996
Roy D. Bridges
Mark N. Brown
John H. Casper
Eugene Cernan - last astronaut to walk on the moon
Roger Chaffee - astronaut killed in Apollo 1
Richard O. Covey
Virgil Grissom, 1950 - also known as "Gus" Grissom, killed in Apollo 1
Guy S. Gardner
Gregory J. Harbaugh
Michael J. McCulley
Gary E. Payton
Mark L. Polansky - piloted Atlantis space shuttle in 2001
Jerry L. Ross - holds the US record for spacewalks
Loren J. Shriver
Janice V. Voss - aboard space shuttle Endeavor in 2000
Charles D. Walker - aboard Discovery space shuttle
Mary E. Weber- aboard Discovery in 1995
Donald E. Williams
David A. Wolf- flew on Mir in 1997

5 Famous professors

Herbert C. Brown - Nobel laureate
Eugene Spafford - CS Professor Extraordinaire, Director of CERIAS , one of 25 presidential appointees to the President’s Information Technology Advisory committee, discovered/analysed/helped to stop the first Internet Worm ( Morris Worm) in 1988
Dr. Arden Bement Jr. - Director of NIST
Dr. Richard P. Vine - Wine consultant for American Airlines

6 External links and references

Big Ten Conference

Universities and colleges in Indiana Association of American Universities

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