Rolling Stone
A college professor by trade, Steve Pruitt lets no moss gather with his diverse array of musical and artistic talents

By Tim Newton

Steve Pruitt as an aspiring musician during his undergraduate years at Krannert.

Musical Roots

Pruitt grew up in Speedway, Indiana, close enough to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to hear the sounds from the track. Adopted at the age of 6 months, his first brush with the arts came at age 10 when he started playing the trumpet. Six years later, he was lead singer for a high-school band called Synthetic Sunshine, a group that lasted for only one gig. “It was proof positive that there was a merciful God,” he now concedes.

His next band had a bit more staying power. Pruitt taught himself to play the bass guitar and formed the group Gibraltar. The band played events on the west side of Indianapolis and in surrounding communities, covering songs from bands of the era and performing some of Pruitt’s original creations.

Pruitt (right) and Geoff Wilcox rocked the crowd in Shreve Hall as members of the late-’70s Purdue band, Saint.

As Pruitt was preparing to choose a college, his father passed away from lung cancer. Calling it a “nexus point” in his life, Pruitt chose to stay close to home and enrolled at Purdue University. After aborted efforts in biology and engineering, he decided to give the Krannert School a try.

One of his Krannert instructors was Professor Dennis Weidenaar, who had written the economics textbook for the class he was teaching. Describing the class as a turning point, Pruitt realized that he had talent in the fields of economics and finance and decided to pursue them as a career.

“Krannert got me rolling,” he says. “It allowed me to chase my dreams.”

Music remained one of those dreams. Having tasted minor success with his high-school band, Pruitt looked for a college group to join. Through a series of contacts, he connected with lead guitarist Geoff Wilcox, keyboard player Mark Gladieux, drummer Andy Bradway, and rhythm guitarist “Joe Rod” Rodriguez (who was quickly replaced by Mark Sorg). The group went by the name Saint and toured clubs in northern Indiana from 1975 to 1978.

“We were one of the best bands in the state, if I do say so,” Pruitt says. “We had some tremendously skilled musicians, especially Geoff Wilcox, who I still consider to be one of the best guitar players alive. The only thing we never had was a great lead singer. I was adequate on the bass, but less than adequate on lead vocals.”

Still, Wilcox remembers Pruitt as the driving force behind the band. “Steve was the spark that produced the flame,” says Wilcox, now an engineer in California. “He passionately encouraged the band to write our own original songs.”

Pruitt’s desire to write and record an album eventually caused him to leave the group. He wrote a 10-minute epic called “Fire and Ice,” which the band members played to rave reviews. When he tried to encourage them to learn another marathon track called “Eternal Warrior,” the group rebelled.

“I had joined Saint with one clear goal in mind — to make a studio album,” Pruitt says. “It became crystal clear to me that it wasn’t going to happen, so I resigned from the band.”

He spent his senior year writing reviews for The Exponent and getting his grades in order. Taking 39 hours in his last two semesters, Pruitt graduated in 1979 and headed to grad school.

Steve Pruitt today.

Real World

With music in his past, at least for the time being, Pruitt earned an MBA at Ohio State University and took a position with Marathon Oil in Findlay, Ohio. He liked the people, but hated the job — “it was very detail-oriented, and I’m a big-picture guy” — but the time there wasn’t a total loss. He met a fellow employee named Mary Settle, and they were married in 1981.

At that time, he took a position with National Services Industries in Crawfordsville, Indiana. This time, he liked the job but didn’t blend in with his coworkers. One day, he told Mary of his desire to leave the workforce and go back to school to become a college professor. With her blessings, they sold all of their worldly possessions and headed to Florida with their 1-year-old daughter, Becky.

Pruitt entered the doctoral program at Florida State University in 1983 and earned a PhD in finance in 1987. He took a position at the University of Mississippi and was named “Researcher of the Year” in the business school.

He then joined the faculty at Indiana University and spent five years teaching at the School of Business at Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis. With two children in tow (second daughter Barri was born in 1986), the family moved to Tennessee in 1993 as Pruitt took a faculty position at the University of Memphis.

It was there that he began doing research in the area of stock prices and sports sponsorships. He and a fellow professor wondered whether sponsoring a winning team in the Indianapolis 500 would boost a company’s stock price. (They found a positive correlation only if the winner was a consumer automotive product, such as STP.) From there, Pruitt branched out into research on the financial effects of stadium naming rights, bowl game sponsorships, and sponsorships of concert tours. His work in those areas and in NASCAR sponsorships was quoted in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and USA Today and led to broadcast appearances on CNN, NBC, NPR, and others.

The research also helped him land an endowed faculty position. He joined the Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2000 and has been there since.

"I belive you can make dreams come true and I've had a lot of fun doing it."

Unfinished Business

With a successful career in academics and both children off to college, Pruitt decided to give music another try. He built a recording studio in his house with the blessing of his wife, whom he rightfully calls “the most understanding person in the world.” In addition to his self-taught talents on the bass guitar, Pruitt learned to play rhythm guitar, keyboards, and drums.

“My leading talent is audacity,” Pruitt admits. “I think the key is to know what you can play and stay within your limitations.”

But Pruitt admitted he needed a great lead guitar player to make the finished product complete. With a fistful of original songs in hand, he called his old buddy Geoff Wilcox, who had gone on to play with members of such famous bands as the Allman Brothers, Jefferson Starship, Eddie Money, and Santana, to see if he would help Pruitt record an original CD.

Wilcox agreed, and was impressed with what he heard.

“Steve’s ‘do-it-yourself’ approach to recording in his home studio the last few years has resulted in him developing significant abilities on drums, keyboards, and most notably, electric rhythm guitar,” says Wilcox, who graduated from Purdue in 1980. “His enthusiastic and sustained interest in writing his own material has resulted in a prolific collection of musical work, a veritable ‘horn of plenty’ of classic-rock-infused songs that reflect his opinion on issues of the day.”

Pruitt, who turned 51 in February, decided to call his musical comeback venture NEVER2LATE, and he commissioned a top California artist to design a band logo. (The band’s Web site is www.NVR2L8.com.) He and Wilcox finished their first CD in late 2007, and it was released early in 2008. The songs also are available on iTunes.

Pruitt between takes in his home recording studio.

Lights, Camera, Action

It’s almost impossible to release a CD without a music video or two, and Pruitt wasn’t about to let an opportunity slip away. Again, with the permission of his wife, who also collaborated with him on some of the songs, Pruitt bought the same high-definition video camera used in several independent movie productions. He cast a couple of friends, John and Virginia Catlett, to play the leads in the video version of the song “Midlife.” Other videos are in the works.

With the first CD behind him, Pruitt and his wife decided to shoot their own movie, based on a play the pair co-authored. The working title for the romantic comedy is Painters, and it’s scheduled to begin production this summer in Kansas City. Mary Pruitt will serve as executive producer and Steve Pruitt as director and producer. Although he’s hired professional actors for the roles, Pruitt says he’ll appear somewhere in the film. “Remember, I have a talent for audacity,” he says with a laugh.

The Pruitts may be too busy this summer to add to their art collection. They began meeting with art dealers several years ago and have amassed enough works to exhibit in 11 different museums in seven states.

“Mary has an exceptional eye, and she’s been my full partner in this,” Pruitt says. “It’s actually turned out to be the best financial investment we’ve entered — much better than the stock market.”

Pruitt and some friends also have launched an online comedy site at www.duhmagazine.com. One of his partners in the venture is his architect pal, David Greusel. An accomplished professional in his own right who has designed PNC Park in Pittsburgh and Minute Maid Park in Houston, Greusel enjoys sticking the needle in his friend.

Pruitt (center) and Wilcox (far right) onstage with their newest band, NEVER2LATE.

“I like to get on his case about his weakness for British sports cars,” says Greusel, who will serve as co-cinematographer on Pruitt’s upcoming movie. “Then one day I saw him pushing his Triumph convertible through an intersection with his wife, Mary, at the wheel.

“That was when I knew I owned him.”

Pruitt takes the kidding in stride.

“My fellow faculty members think I’m nuts,” he says. “I believe you can make dreams come true. I’ve had a lot of fun doing it. But I’d give it all up in a heartbeat if I could just relive the fun I had raising my two wonderful daughters.”