AUSTIN, Texas—Professor emerita and former dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs Elspeth Davies Rostow has been chosen to receive the Distinguished Service Award given by the Texas Exes at The University of Texas at Austin.
The Distinguished Service Award recognizes meritorious service to the university and is the highest honor that can be bestowed on a non-alumnus. This is the fourth time the award has been given. Past recipients are former University of Texas President Peter T. Flawn, the university’s Senior Vice President William Livingston and philanthropist Peter O’Donnell.
Rostow will be honored in an Oct. 14 presentation at the LBJ Library Auditorium, which also will honor five recipients of the Distinguished Alumnus Awards, including:
- Rodney Ellis, M.P.A. 1977, J.D. 1979, Texas state senator for District 13
- Morton H. Meyerson, B.A. 1961, chairman and CEO of 2M Companies, Inc.
- James J. Mulva, B.B.A. 1968, MBA 1989, chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips
- Shirley Bird Perry, B.S. 1958, M.A. 1967, senior vice president, The University of Texas at Austin
- Sara Martinez Tucker, B.J. 1976, MBA 1979, president and CEO of Hispanic Scholarship Fund.
Rostow has held numerous presidential appointments, including chairmanship of the United States Institute of Peace. She also is an internationally recognized expert on public policy, teaching courses on the American presidency and U.S. foreign policy. Rostow has been a major influence at the university since 1969. Before being named dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Rostow was dean of the university’s Division of General and Comparative Studies.
Admiral Bob Inman, interim dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs and past president of the Texas Exes said, “Elspeth Rostow has been a terrific contributor to the LBJ School, The University of Texas and the Texas Exes for 35 years.” In addition to her faculty appointments at The University of Texas at Austin, Rostow has taught at Barnard College, Sarah Lawrence, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgetown University, American University and University of Cambridge.
With her husband, the late Walt Rostow, she co-founded in 1991 The Austin Project to address the problems of crime and poverty in Austin. They set out to make Austin a model by looking at the community as a whole. Their aim was to coordinate charities and government to reduce school drop-out rates, improve health, link the private sector and schools, and introduce technology to students.
In 1996 Rostow received the Top Hand Award from the Texas Exes and has served on the committee to select Texas Exes Scholars since the inception of the program in 1982.
For more information contact: Kim Gunersen, Texas Exes, 512-471-8553, or Robert D. Meckel, Office of Public Affairs, 512-475-7847.
