EVENT: The University of Texas at Austin invites the community to a memorial service honoring the life of the late William C. Powers Jr., its 28th president.
WHEN: 3 p.m. Friday, April 12
WHERE: South steps of the Main Building (UT Tower), 110 Inner Campus Drive
WHO MAY ATTEND: The event is open to the public. Media are invited.
MEDIA PARKING: Limited media parking is available near the event, between the Hogg Memorial Auditorium (HMA) and the Flawn Academic Center (FAC). Contact Paige Tuttle (512-471-2389, paige.tuttle@utexas.edu) for more information.
LIVE STREAM: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/utaustin
BACKGROUND: The UT Austin community will gather to celebrate the life of William C. Powers Jr., the university’s 28th president.
The program will run from 3 to 4 p.m. with a video tribute and multiple speakers, including Distinguished Alumnus Kenny Jastrow, who chaired the university’s capital campaign under Powers; Distinguished Alumna Pamela Willeford, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland; and Gregory L. Fenves, president of the university. Musicians Larry Gatlin and Chantal Freeman will perform.
Powers was an esteemed teacher, nationally recognized legal scholar, and staunch believer in the value of the public research university who defended UT against challenges to its mission.
Powers passed away March 10 in Austin from complications from a fall several months earlier and from oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy, a rare adult-onset muscle disorder.
In addition to serving as president from 2006 to 2015, he had been a member of the School of Law faculty for more than 40 years, including six as dean. Among his many accomplishments as the second-longest-serving president in UT’s history, he oversaw the establishment of two of UT’s 18 colleges and schools and the successful completion of a $3 billion capital campaign, the largest ever undertaken at a public university in Texas. He also presided over the completion or construction of 13 major buildings that changed the face of the campus.
