At the Heart of Giving

Deedee and Burt McMurtry

Burt joined the Rice Board of Trustees in 1987 and served on the Rice: The Next Century Campaign Leadership Committee, in addition to numerous other committees. Burt and Deedee are members of the Golden Class Scholarship Committee and members of Rice Associates and William Marsh Rice, Legacy, and Captain James A. Baker Societies.

Burt’s sentiments about his alma mater are reflected by generous gifts that he and Deedee have made to Rice. “We enjoy making gifts that will make a difference,” he says.

During the Rice: The Next Century Campaign, Burt and Deedee established the Deedee McMurtry Professorship in Humanities, a chair currently held by linguistics expert Professor Matt Shibatani.

Their many gifts extend to other parts of campus as well. In Baker Hall, the McMurtrys funded much-needed construction and renovation of Secretary Baker’s office suite and a third-floor conference room for scholars, fellows, and students.

Across campus, in Abercrombie Engineering Laboratory, they underwrote the construction of a clean room, an environment free of disruptive contamination. This facility will allow faculty and students to carry out research that previously could not be conducted on campus.

In addition, the McMurtrys made a major gift to Connexions, a revolutionary education platform that adapts the open-source software concept to scholarly content, making it easy to publish course curricula online, where anyone can use it or modify it to meet their own specific needs.

The McMurtrys’ generosity provides vital support to all areas of teaching and research at Rice.

At the Heart of Giving - A devotion to Rice and the community it serves