Dale Pruett Memorial Scholarship for Hospitality Management Established at Southeast
06/19/2017

The Dale Pruett Memorial Scholarship for Hospitality Management has been established through the Southeast Missouri University Foundation. Friends of Dale Pruett made a gift of $10,821 gift to the Foundation to establish the award. The renewable scholarship will be awarded to students enrolled at Southeast majoring in hospitality management with a minimum 2.0 grade point average. The Department of Management and Marketing will select the recipient. The scholarship honors Pruett who strived to serve others in the hospitality and foodservice industry. Pruett grew up in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, in a family that owned Pruett’s BBQ Drive-In. The restaurant, founded in 1946, was famous for their real pit smoked barbecue pork sandwiches, cheeseburgers and milk shakes. The restaurant was located near the Poplar Bluff High School at the intersection of Highway 67 and Highway 60. Pruett’s family home was located right behind the restaurant, so he grew up in the barbecue business. He watched his father and mother, Troy and Pearl Pruett, tirelessly making untold numbers of sandwiches so good that customers still talk about them today. It was in this environment that he discovered his true calling, serving other people. He soon developed his own brand of a special gift of gab at Pruett’s which he brought with him years later to Port Cape Girardeau Restaurant and Lounge. Pruett became a local icon of hospitality serving up barbecue and adult beverages to thousands upon thousands of customers over his 40 years of service at “The Port.” For more information, please contact the Southeast Missouri University Foundation at (573) 651-2203 or foundation@semo.edu. Photo Caption: Doc Cain (left), owner of Port Cape Girardeau Restauarant and Lounge, celebrates the establishment of the Dale Pruett Memorial Scholarship for Hospitality with Dr. Quantella Noto (right), assistant professor of hospitality management and hospitality management program director at Southeast.