Thursday evening, approximately 750 SMU alumni and friends adorned in tuxedoes, gowns and formal attire gathered in the ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Dallas to honor four alumni award recipients at the 53rd annual Distinguished Alumni Award Celebration.
Created in 1951, it is the most distinguished award a SMU alumnus can receive from the university. So far, 267 alumni have received the award, which is typically presented the Thursday evening of Homecoming Weekend.
A sub-committee of the Alumni Board selects alumni who have “distinguished themselves by rendering extraordinary service and achievement to a particular discipline, organization or cause.”
This year’s recipients are Javier Aldape, David Bates, J. Lindsay Embrey Jr. and Jeanne Phillips.
Turner and Alumni Board Chair Kelly Compton greeted the award recipients, who each credited SMU as being the launching point for their career achievements.
Javier Aldape
Aldape received the 2005 Emerging Leader Award, which was created last year to honor distinguished alumni who have graduated in the past 15 years.
Aldape is currently the editor and vice president of Hoy (Today), where he oversees editorial coverage and marketing for the Spanish-language daily paper published by the Tribune Company. His past positions included vice president of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram; publisher of Diario La Estrella, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Spanish-language newspaper; and managing editor of El Telegrafo, a leading newspaper in Ecuador.
Aldape earned a B.A. in history, art history and Latin American studies from SMU in 1992. Though he didn’t major in journalism, he credited his experience as a former editor in chief of The Daily Campus with preparing him for the real world.
“SMU was a transformative period in my life,” he said.
David Bates
Bates, a well-known Texas painter and sculptor, received one of the three Distinguished Alumni Awards.
He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art from SMU in 1975. After graduation, he was chosen to attend Whitney Museum of American Art, an independent study program in New York City. Bates returned to SMU and completed his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1978.
His art has been displayed in museums throughout the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Meadows Museum at SMU.
J. Lindsay Embrey Jr.
Embrey is now chair of First Continental Enterprises and co-owner of several shopping centers and apartment complexes.
As an SMU student, Embrey participated in the V-12 program, which provided Navy officers offices from the nation’s campuses during World War II.
He earned a B.S. in civil engineering in 1945 and a B.B.A. in 1947 from SMU. Embrey is currently on the School of Engineering Executive Board. His previous positions include a member of the SMU Board of Trustees and past chair of both the SMU Alumni Board and Mustang Club. More than 2,000 students have received scholarships through an endowment he established in 1978. He and his wife, Bobbie, received the 1999 Mustang Award. The School of Engineering presented Embrey the Hall of Leaders Distinguished Alumni Award in 2004.
Jeanne L. Phillips
Jeanne L. Phillips received her B.A. in English from SMU in 1976. Since then, she has played diverse leadership roles in business and politics.
In 1980, Phillips launched her own public relations firm after holding various positions in the Cox School of Business. She became a senior adviser in President Bush’s gubernatorial campaign in 1993; eight years later, Bush appointed her to the ambassador-level position of U.S. Permanent Representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.
Phillips returned to Dallas in 2003 and founded International Strategic Partners, Inc. She was named to the SMU Board of Trustees in 2004 and became senior vice president for corporate affairs and international relations for Hunt Consolidated Inc. a year later.
According to Hal Williams, dean of research and graduate studies, “Jeanne is smart, very smart. She has a learning curve that goes on for miles.”
