About 30 years ago, Karen Ennen led a grassroots effort to keep a landfill out of her neighborhood in Watseka, Illinois. The proposed landfill would have been the third one in a county of 32,000 people.

She says her first experience as an activist brought her together with scientists and environmental lawyers who became some of her best sources of information. Now, through an estate gift to Purdue’s Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering (EEE), Ennen is helping further a proactive approach to stop environmental damage — by supporting engineers who tackle environmental problems at their industrial source. The John Jr. and Karen Ennen Memorial Fund, named with her late husband, will, in part, help recruit and retain EEE faculty as part of the College of Engineering’s Strategic Growth Initiative.

An unrestricted gift, its funds also may be used for creating student scholarships. Ennen’s gift demonstrates her dedication to sustainability. Her commitment to green engineering, she says, “is simply rent you pay for living on this earth.” As for her battle over the landfill, Ennen says with reflection, “I was too naive to know that I couldn’t stop it.” Fortunately, after a two-year court battle, her group’s case was victorious in an appellate court.