Ellin and Ned Purdom grew to appreciate astronomy later in life. Neither took astronomy courses in the 1970s while at UC Berkeley, where the two met. Now, they look forward to the Department of Astronomy’s Evening with the Stars lecture every year, and in February, the couple pledged $500,000 and a portion of their estate to advance student access and diversity in astronomy.
Ellin and Ned Purdom grew to appreciate astronomy later in life. Neither took astronomy courses in the 1970s while at UC Berkeley, where the two met. Now, they look forward to the Department of Astronomy’s Evening with the Stars lecture every year, and in February, the couple pledged $500,000 and a portion of their estate to advance student access and diversity in astronomy.
“I don’t think we ever thought about ourselves as philanthropists,” said Ned. “If you told us we were going to give to the astronomy department, I would have thought you were kidding. I couldn't even tell you where Campbell Hall was, having walked by it 10,000 times!”
The catalyst for this change was Ned’s father, Paul, who was a character. Paul had an early intuition that the science and technology companies forming around Silicon Valley were on to something big, so he co-founded an advertising firm that attracted many businesses that are now household names. Ned would eventually join the company, using his English degree to write advertisements, press materials, and training manuals. What they lacked in formal scientific backgrounds they made up through their curiosity for how things worked.
“It was lovely to write and talk to scientists and engineers, whether they were doing medical technology, fundamental science, solar research, or semiconductor production,” said Ned. “I've seen some cool stuff. I watched them build the space shuttle. I saw early fusion experiments at Lawrence Livermore that are now, 40 years later, paying dividends. A friend and I went through the Computer History Museum in Mountain View last spring, and a fair amount of the exhibits were projects that our company actually worked on.”
Paul would take long, solo drives to the middle of Nevada and Utah just to gaze up in awe at the clear night sky. He didn’t own a telescope, but he could access the knowledge he gained from dozens of astronomy books and weekend UC Berkeley Extension courses to decipher the vast starscapes above him.
Despite Paul’s stargazing pastime, Ned and his brother, Charlie, were surprised when their father left a substantial gift in his will to help Berkeley recruit and retain excellent faculty in astronomy. As Ned and Ellin met professors and became more involved with the department, their interest in the field grew.
“Paul's legacy has been fascinating and has opened up astronomy to both Ned and I,” said Ellin. “Then, when it came time for our estate plan, we came to create our own fund in the same department. It just felt right. The department was small enough that whatever contribution we made would make a difference, and in the meantime, we're both becoming astronomy nuts.”
Ned and Ellin Purdom attend Evening with the Stars with the Campanile in the background.
Astronomy students pose with a telescope (photo by Johnny Gan Chong).
In focusing their philanthropy on diversity, Ellin drew on her social welfare degree and Ned on his background as an Albany High School teacher. Ned noticed the demographic disparity between students in honors and advanced placement (AP) classes and those making up work during summer school. He worried that society was relegating many kids to a secondary status by inadequately addressing education and underlying issues like poverty.
The Purdoms were also motivated by Moiya McTier’s book, The Milky Way. McTier discussed her experience as a Black girl in rural Pennsylvania interested in science with limited encouragement and few role models who looked like her. Nevertheless, she earned her Ph.D. in astrophysics and now works as a science communicator.
“Everybody has the right to understand our cosmological background,” said Ned. “We were all formed from that explosion. It's an equal opportunity, life-creating event, but access to understanding it is certainly unequal. So why not help create an opportunity to expand on that?”
Astronomy has long been a gateway to spark students’ interest in the sciences. Ellin recalled a conversation with Steven Kahn where the dean of the Division of Mathematical & Physical Sciences contended that every child is born interested in the stars and the galaxies. They learn their planets in kindergarten. They have stickers on their ceilings. Astronomy is a friendly way to continue that quest for knowledge.
“We just looked at each other and said we need to do this,” said Ellin regarding their gift. “It feels genuinely great.”
“When we were raising our kids, we were both involved in school-oriented charity,” said Ned. “The minute we both retired, the first thing we said to each other was ‘what are we going to do with our time?’
They each volunteer and serve as board members for local nonprofits. The Purdoms view the astronomy student access fund they started as a way to build a legacy and lead by example for their own kids, much as Paul did for his sons. Both feel that philanthropy has provided an unexpected enrichment in their lives as they learn more about their community and the broader universe.
“To go to Evening with the Stars or visit a lab and an 18 year old kid is explaining their research or the fact that they just published a paper, that’s really an eye-opener,” remarked Ned. “That was so foreign to my experience. The amount of fundamental or applied research is unbelievable. You see how excited and engaged faculty is in that process. Part of the process that has been so joyful is being introduced to or reminded of that.”
The dome of the Campbell Hall rooftop telescope, with the Campanile in the background