Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. have become the first couple in SMU history to receive honorary degrees together. They received Doctor of Humane Letters degrees at the May 2008 Commencement ceremony “for their generous and farsighted contributions to the arts, sciences and education in Dallas, Texas, and the nation.”
“I was very honored,” says Peter O’Donnell Jr. “I’ve had a lifelong interest in education and have been involved at SMU for many years.”
Edith and Peter O’Donnell receive honorary degrees from President Turner.
O’Donnell is president and CEO of the O’Donnell Foundation, which has funded innovative programs to strengthen engineering and science education. The Advanced Placement Incentive Program, originally established at nine Texas schools, is now a national model for increasing the rate of minority high school students earning college credit by passing advanced placement exams.
“There is a worldwide demand for talent in every field,” he says. “I really want to see students becoming good at something they choose.”
In addition, O’Donnell is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, serves on the President’s Circle of the National Academy of Sciences and is a founding member of the Academy of Medicine, Science and Engineering of Texas.
Edith O’Donnell promotes arts education as founder of Young Audiences of North Texas, now called Big Thought, which brings arts to students through community agencies, school districts, child-care centers and juvenile detention facilities. In 2007, Big Thought won a three-year $8 million grant from the Wallace Foundation to create a national model for arts education. “It is among my greatest joys to help a fine organization in a meaningful way,” she says.
She also founded Advanced Placement Incentive Programs for art and music theory students in 10 Dallas-area schools. Their art is featured each spring in a young masters exhibit, this year at the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Last year AP art and music theory students won $10 million in college scholarships.
“Receiving the SMU degree was an unbelievable honor for me,” she says. “Neither Pete nor I attended SMU, and to honor us together is beyond my greatest dreams.”