O’Donnell Foundation gives $30 million to SMU

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The O’Donnell Foundation, one of Dallas’ most generous and prolific benefactors, is donating $30 million to Southern Methodist University to create 10 endowed academic positions in data science and engineering and support related research.

SMU President R. Gerald Turner announced the gift Wednesday at a university faculty meeting. The money will be split evenly between the school’s newly named O’Donnell Data Science and Research Computing Institute and its initiative for digital innovation in engineering and computer science.

The foundation, created in 1957 by the late Peter O’Donnell Jr. and his late wife, Edith, long ago became one of Texas’ leading philanthropists by spearheading what’s been called “moon-shot advancements in math, science, computing and the arts.” For years, most of their gifts — which totaled $780 million, according to Peter O’Donnell’s published memoir — were anonymous.

“Peter and Edith O’Donnell left a remarkable legacy of supporting education in North Texas and beyond,” Turner said in a statement. “This gift from their foundation is a milestone for us because it provides critical support for our decadelong strategy to strengthen SMU as a center for applying the latest technology to enhance innovation and learning.”

Peter O’Donnell built his family’s fortune through a successful investment brokerage business. He died in 2021 at age 97. His wife died in 2020 at age 94.

Their foundation once launched a challenge grant that created 32 One Million Dollar Chairs in science and engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where O’Donnell and his wife helped create the highly regarded Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences. It has also given more than $300 million to UT Southwestern Medical Center, where a new school of public health and a brain research institute carry the O’Donnell name.

SMU, a private university with about 12,000 students, launched a $1.5 billion fundraising campaign in 2021 to support future research, scholarships and campus enhancements. As part of that campaign, the college has received a number of multimillion-dollar gifts, including:

$100 million from the Moody Foundation in 2019.
$50 million from David and Carolyn Miller in 2019.
$50 million from Garry Weber Foundation in 2022.
$30 million from Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones in 2023.
$20 million from Rich and Mary Templeton in 2023.
$15 million from Marlyne Sexton in 2022.
$15 million from Bill and Liz Martin Armstrong in 2022.

The O’Donnell Foundation donation is among the largest in Texas this year, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/phi ... g-faculty/

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Thanks for sharing this donation and commitment to SMU’s growing reputation in Data Sciences, a critical curriculum for us and the development in these essential technology platforms.