But who was Allan W. Purdy?

Submitted by Val Meyers, Associate Director at Michigan State University and MASFAA Awards Committee member

On the MASFAA Awards web page, members can read about the various recognitions that MASFAA bestows each year.  The highest award that MASFAA can award an individual is the Allan W. Purdy Distinguished Service Award.  The recipient of this award must have made outstanding contributions to the financial aid profession and to MASFAA, demonstrating service to students, fellow professionals, and others in the public sphere who may be stakeholders in financial aid in higher education. 

But that is all I knew about Allan Purdy before I started this blog entry, so I decided to do a little research and see if I could find out more about why he has been immortalized by an award (both at the MASFAA and NASFAA levels).  I was surprised to find that neither organization seems to have any information on their web sites about who Allan Purdy was.

So, let me tell you what I found in the archives and by the use of web searches regarding this celebrated colleague and leader in our profession.

Allan W. Purdy is best known to us for his position at the University of Missouri as the Director of Student Financial Aids. 

With a bachelor’s in horticulture from the University of Missouri (then MU College of Agriculture), and later a master’s degree, he returned to work at the University in 1946 in the state horticulture extension after serving in the Navy in WWII in the Mediterranean theatre. 

As an extension horticulturist, Purdy became an advocate for the agriculture school’s efforts to provide scholarships for more students.  When Sputnik inspired the creation of the National Student Defense Loans (later known as Perkins Loans) in 1957, the university needed an office to administer them. Allan Purdy was selected by the university president to create the Student Financial Aids office and became its first director.

From that position, Purdy is credited as a founding force in the formation of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators in 1962.  He also helped to create the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) and the first regional financial aid association – MASFAA.  And he was celebrated for community involvement, and became known nationally as an advocate for university students. 

In 1970, the year of his retirement, both MASFAA and NASFAA established awards that bear his name.  The first recipient was, of course, Allan Purdy. 

In addition to being celebrated by both MASFAA and NASFAA with the creation of these awards, the MU Life Sciences Center was dedicated in 2004 with the Allan and Vivian Purdy Native Tree Collection area. 

One of the endowed scholarships at University of Missouri in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources was established upon his passing in 2010.  In the description, the scholarship notes that it serves to recognize those who exemplify the same concern and care for students as did Purdy, who dedicated his life to removing financial barriers to higher education (for students).

So when the MASFAA Awards Committee posts an invitation to nominate one or more of your peers for this award, please keep Allan W. Purdy’s life in mind.  Not all of us can help found a professional association, or have an award named after us, but we can (and do!) continue to advocate for students and help them remove financial barriers to college.  Please help the MASFAA Awards Committee identify colleagues to nominate for this singular honor.