Elizabeth Sandifur Weber

Elizabeth (Liz) Weber was born on a small farm in Carroll County, Indiana on October 4, 1943 of parents, James and Nellie Payne Sandifur, both deceased. She is survived by an older sister, Mary Louise Jewell, and two younger brothers, Robert Joe Sandifur and James Sandifur. She is also survived by her husband Richard Weber.

Liz grew up in Dayton, Indiana and graduated from Dayton High School. She went on to Purdue and enrolled as one of a handful of female engineering students in 1962. She graduated with honors in 1967 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. After graduation she married Richard Weber and located to Indianapolis where she was employed as an engineer for Allison Gas Turbine Company. In 1971, while working at Allison, she earned an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue with honors. And, in 1989, again while working at Allison, she graduated from I.U. with and M.B.A. with honors. Her engineering management career included six years at Schwitzer Corporation followed by 27 years at Allison Gas Turbine. She stayed on as Chief Information Officer at Allison when it was acquired by Rolls Royce Aerospace and retired from there in 2000 as a Section Chief Engineer.

Liz earned the honor of being the first female Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Indiana. Other honors include: the “Elizabeth S. Weber Award” from the Society of Women Engineers, a “Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honorary Award”, and an IUPUI “Distinguished Alumnus Award”. She was also inducted as a “Kentucky Colonel” by Governor Stephen L Beshear for philanthropic work she and her husband did in Eastern Kentucky.

Liz was active in the Senior Games and won numerous Indiana awards in Track and Field that qualified her to represent Indiana at National Senior Game competitions.

Liz was an avid rock climber and, with her husband, traveled around the country, climbing at different venues. Her favorite climbs were in the Red River Gorge and Yosemite Valley in California. In 2004, she and her husband, bought land in the Red River Gorge Region of Eastern Kentucky and established a nature and rock climbing preserve, Muir Valley, on 360 acres of land in the Gorge. In 2015, the Webers donated the preserve to the Friends of Muir Valley – a non-profit organization that will own and manage the preserve in perpetuity. She lived to see this preserve become one of the more popular climbing venues in North America.

In the past few years, Liz and her husband initiated several philanthropic activities in the U.S. and Canada.

Liz directed that there be no funeral, but rather a Celebration of Life event to be scheduled in the near future.