This fund honors Donald D. “Don” and Ruth S. Eckis. Don Eckis attended Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind., for two years. He was the chairman and chief executive officer for Don’s Prize Foods-Frozen Meat Packers Inc. in Miami. He later sold this company to Green Giant. Ruth worked for 36 years for Southern Bell, where she finished her career as an executive secretary.

Don and Ruth had three children, Robert Eckis, Jeanne Moesly and Phyllis Ann Gautier. Their son-in-law, Lawrence P. Gautier, Jr., received a bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1951 and a juris doctor in 1956 from the University of Florida.

Poor health separated Don and Ruth in their final days of their 37-year marriage, but when the time came, they went together. Don passed away at home and Ruth passed away at the hospital a few hours later on May 11, 1992. He was 93 and she was 81.