A late spouse’s Christmas dream realized
Tina Smith wanted to donate a Purdue Memorial Union Christmas tree. Tina’s husband, Darrell, helped fulfill that wish.
“She’d just be ecstatic. She’d want to be there. She’d want to see it cut down. She’d want to be at the Union to see it come in. She’d want to be there to watch it being decorated. She loved all holidays, but Christmas was her favorite.”
Darrell Smith, a maintenance technician at Purdue for the last 33 years, knows exactly how his late wife, Tina, would have reacted to the news that her wish had come true. Tina loved visiting the Purdue Memorial Union Christmas tree each holiday season — so much so that she dreamed of contributing to the tradition herself someday.
Eight years after Tina passed away, the Purdue Student Union Board accepted Darrell’s offer to donate a 32-foot spruce from his backyard that he and Tina picked as a potential Purdue Christmas tree more than a decade ago.
The Smiths’ tree was the featured attraction when Purdue kicked off its holiday festivities with a tree-lighting ceremony on Nov. 25, in the PMU Great Hall.
“I was pretty happy when I heard,” Smith says. “I’m really an emotional guy. It makes me so happy that my wife’s getting what she wanted.”
The PMU Christmas tree holds a special place in many Boilermakers’ holiday traditions, but that is especially the case for the Smith family. For most of the past three decades, Smith has taken care of the massive trees that have resided in the Union’s Great Hall during the holidays.
He’s helped yank them in the front door. He’s helped raise them into standing position. He’s helped students decorate them. And he’s spent untold hours watering them in an effort to keep them looking beautiful all season.
It can be a thankless job, but his Purdue colleagues are well aware of the special care that Smith takes to make sure the season is merry and bright for the Boilermaker community. So when Smith’s boss, Luke Versprille, learned about his desire to donate a tree in his late wife’s memory, he made Smith’s goal his own.
“Luke and I hit it off from the day I met him. More than being my boss, he turned out to be a friend who saw something I wanted and tried to make it happen,” Smith says. “He said it was one of his goals that, before I retire, he wanted to get one of my trees in there.”
It was an easy decision for Versprille, Purdue’s director of auxiliary services operations.
“For over three decades, Darrell has poured endless amounts of effort and energy into helping mold the Purdue Memorial Union into what it has become today,” Versprille said. “His love and care for the building and, more importantly, the people who visit embodies the spirit of Boilermaker hospitality. Having Darrell’s tree as the centerpiece for the holidays is such a beautiful way for us to recognize what makes this place so special: its people.”
One of Smith’s favorite responsibilities at Christmastime is helping students decorate the tree, preparing it for the tree-lighting festivities. Of course, that work is a bit more meaningful this year.
When the lights flickered on for the first time, Darrell and his children were in attendance to see Tina’s dream finally realized.
“It was her idea after going there for so many years and looking at them and seeing that we actually had that type of tree out here in our backyard,” Smith says.
“She really wanted to be able to donate one. I just wish she could be here to see it.”
She’d just be ecstatic. She’d want to be there. She’d want to see it cut down. She’d want to be at the Union to see it come in. She’d want to be there to watch it being decorated. She loved all holidays, but Christmas was her favorite.
Darrell Smith, on how his late wife, Tina, would have reacted when Purdue selected their tree as the Purdue Memorial Union Christmas tree
