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Our first honoree this evening is Dr. Gene Burd, an unsung academic hero who has touched the hearts and souls of countless students and who will leave an enduring legacy in the academy and, particularly, at this University. Gene has outlasted countless faculty members, chairs, deans and presidents at U.T., in part because--being an inveterate walker--he gets more exercise than all of them combined!
Gene has been shaping future journalists at the University of Texas since 1972. Alumni tell us that he is one of the professors they remember most easily – both for his individual style and for his passion for training students how to write critically, thoughtfully, powerfully, and honestly.
Gene’s door is open for more hours per day than any others professor in the College and it is open, especially, for students. He loves to talk about current events and what’s going on in the Journalism business. He takes his work and the University’s mission to heart and he lives that work and that mission each day.
Gene is also famously frugal, so much so that in 2004 he used more than $1 million of his own money—built up from saving up his paychecks and by wise investing--to establish the Urban Communication Foundation, which gives financial awards to journalists and researchers who specialize in city planning, architecture, zoning and environmental issues. He also set up an annual prize given by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication to honor one of his graduate students who died in 2002.
Through these day-in and day-out ways, Gene Burd embodies hard work, self-sufficiency, appreciation for life, and responsiveness toward others. He has brought honor and distinction to the college for 35 years. Long live Gene Burd, a most worthy recipient of this year’s Robert C. Jeffrey Benefactors Award!