Donor Profiles

Nick Purdy Family

A University of Idaho education helped Nick Purdy succeed; now he gives back to a new generation.

Nick Purdy’s 1962 graduation from the University of Idaho in agricultural engineering, led to a lifetime of entrepreneurship and innovation, which still continues. Purdy, of Picabo, near Sun Valley, has won awards for years of service and accomplishments in the irrigation industry, including expanding Silver Creek Irrigation statewide before he sold it. He and his son Randy were first in the U.S. to merge high-pressure big-gun irrigation systems with advanced computer central control systems to provide effective dust control for large cattle feedlots, a system still sold nationwide.

The Nick Purdy family, including his wife, Sharon, and his father, Bud Purdy, pictured above, recently donated to the college nearly an acre of land in a subdivision ready for development in Picabo. When it is sold, proceeds will benefit a scholarship endowment for biological and agricultural engineering students.

“My wife and I, two of my three sons, two of my daughters-in-law, and my grandson all have attended, or are attending the University of Idaho,” said Purdy, explaining his donation. “I feel we owe something back for what it has given us. I want to give some young people the same chances we have had because of our higher educations.”