Indiana’s Bicentennial Torch is heading toward Purdue and will arrive on Oct. 12. Those who carry it around campus will include Purdue President Mitch Daniels, Dean Emerita Betty Nelson, and members of the Purdue Engineering team who designed it.

One Purdue student is dedicating his portion of the relay to the late Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom (ME 1950), one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts,  to recognize the astronaut’s contributions to space exploration and also to remind the local community of Grissom’s military service.

Dustin Weisner, president of the Purdue Student Veteran Organization (PSVO), will carry the torch for about a quarter of a mile. Weisner will run to honor Grissom, who was also a U.S. Air Force test pilot, mechanical engineer, and a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War. Grissom, the first NASA astronaut to fly into space twice, died during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission in 1967. 

"I’m proud to be running in honor of someone who has done so much for us as a University and a nation," Weisner says. "While we can’t physically thank him, we’d like to do it in spirit."

Purdue Industrial Engineering's home, Grissom Hall, is named in honor of Grissom.

The Bicentennial Torch will travel 3,200 miles through all 92 Indiana counties, hitting 260 cities along the way. Fired by Indiana-made E-85 fuel and crafted from aluminum lithium alloy from Alcoa in Lafayette, the torch will stay lit the entire way.

Condensed from the original article by Andrea Thomas, Communications Director for Student Success Programs http://www.purdue.edu/studentsuccess/specialized/veterans/torchrelay.php