Alumni Board Chair Bill Vanderstraaten ’82 welcomes attendees to the annual Distinguished Alumni award ceremony in McFarlin Auditorium. (Spencer J Eggers/The Daily Campus)

SMU recognized four new Distinguished Alumni Thursday night for their lifetime achievements and dedication to the university.

The Distinguished Alumni award is the highest honor SMU gives to its graduates.

The 2011 recipients include James Griffin III, the president of Horizon Communities in Prison, David B. Miller of EnCap Investments Inc. and Annette Caldwell Simmons, the namesake of SMU’s school of education.

Griffin graduated from SMU in 1957.

He has spent more than 20 years on faith and character-based rehabilitation efforts for prison inmates.

Miller earned two degrees from SMU — a Bachelor of Arts in 1972 and an M.B.A. in 1973.

He has already received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Cox School of Business and the Silver Anniversary Mustang Award from the SMU Letterman’s Association.

Simmons is a former member of the board of the SMU Tate Lecture Series and was honored previously with the Dallas Distinguished Community Service Award.

Simmons and her husband, Harold C. Simmons endowed the Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS shoes, was also recognized and received the Emerging Leader Award, an award that recognizes an alumnus for achievements within the last

15 years.

Mycoskie got his start as an entrepreneur at SMU.

He created a campus laundry service that expanded to seven universities.

In 2006, he launched the popular TOMS shoes and One for One program.

The night’s events began with a sold-out reception and dinner in the Grand Ballroom in the Umphrey Lee Center.

The dinner was followed by the award presentation in McFarlin Auditorium.

SMU also expanded the ceremony this year as part of the Centennial celebration.

In addition to the new recipients of the award, SMU welcomed home past Distinguished Alumni to be honored as History Makers.

Among the new History Makers are several familiar SMU names including Ruth Collins Altshuler, the longest serving member of the Board of Trustees, Edwin L. Cox, the Cox School benefactor, and Ray and Nancy Hunt, Dallas philanthropists and business leaders.  

Video shot and edited by Summer Dashe, [email protected]