DPU employee dies on job

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

A 63-year-old maintenance employee at DePauw University was found dead on the job Tuesday morning, and all indications are that he died of natural causes.

A man walking past a small tractor equipped with a snow plow, stopped in front of Reese Hall in Rector Village, found David "Butch" A. Pettit unconscious at the wheel.

Operation Life was dispatched to the scene, but Pettit was pronounced dead at Putnam County Hospital, according to university spokesman Ken Owen.

He had been a groundskeeper at the university since 1989. At the time of his death, he was removing snow from the sidewalk and it appeared he had been incapacitated for some time.

Comments
View 4 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • God bless the family.

    -- Posted by strings on Wed, Jan 23, 2008, at 5:28 AM
  • Those of us who knew and worked with "Butch" will miss him! He was one of a kind.

    -- Posted by foxtrotter on Wed, Jan 23, 2008, at 8:41 AM
  • rest butch you deserve it! god bless!

    -- Posted by gottokno on Wed, Jan 23, 2008, at 4:52 PM
  • God bless the Family of Butch Pettit he was a fine man and one of a kind. I was friends with his sister (Phyllis) at one time.

    -- Posted by sheder on Wed, Jan 23, 2008, at 6:26 PM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: