Marriott Family Endows Meadows Professorship

A new gift of $1 million will create the Marriott Family Endowed Professor Fund in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts.

SMU parents John W. Marriott III and his wife, Angela C. Marriott, as well as John’s father, J. Willard Marriott Jr., and his wife, Donna Garff Marriott, supported the gift, which was provided through the Marriott Fund of The Columbus Foundation in Columbus, Ohio.
“This gift will enable Meadows School of the Arts to strengthen and broaden its academic offerings to prepare students for success in the arts,” says SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “The gift supports a goal of SMU’s Second Century Campaign to endow 100 faculty positions.”
John W. Marriott III and wife Angela live in Maryland and serve on SMU’s Parent Leadership Council. Their daughter, Nicole ’10, earned a Bachelor’s degree in advertising with minors in English and Italian from SMU. Two daughters are current SMU students: Elyse is majoring in advertising and
will graduate in 2013, and Michelle is a sophomore.
“Our three daughters have benefited from the outstanding education they received through Meadows School of the Arts, and we want to help provide similar opportunities for future students,” says John W. Marriott III. “Instead of designating a specific division of the arts for our gift, Angie and I decided to give the Meadows School the freedom to use this fund to support a professorship in whatever field seems most appropriate to strengthen the school and enrich the educational experience of its students.”
The gift supports the Meadows mission “to become the national leader in a new form of arts education that measures itself not by the number of celebrities produced, but by the number of working artists who serve their communities and earn their living in the arts,” says Dean José Bowen.
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