Tom Petty is set to receive an honorary Doctor Of Music degree from the University Of Florida in his hometown of Gainesville tomorrow, Thursday, May 4. The Tom Petty Estate and UF are also partnering to create The Tom Petty Endowment for Guitars & Innovation to aid the next generation of artists in the School of Music’s Guitar and newly minted Music Business & Entrepreneurship programs.
Bruce Petty will accept the degree in his brother’s honor at UF’s spring commencement ceremony on Thursday.
“I don’t think anyone in our family, including him, thought that he would be linked with the University of Florida this way,” Bruce Petty stated. “It’s such a powerful thing, it was his life-long dream, and I know he would just be over-the-top, crazy happy about it.”
University of Florida School of Music director Kevin Orr also weighed in on the honor.
“We in the UF School of Music and College of the Arts are privileged to honor Tom Petty with an honorary doctorate degree in Music, celebrating not only his extraordinary achievements as an artist, but the ways in which his music has and continues to unite us as a community.”
The Tom Petty Estate launched The Tom Petty Endowment for Guitars & Innovation with a donation of $100,000. Donate to the endowment here. Also, 300 special limited edition commemorative posters of Shepard Fairey’s iconic “An American Treasure” artwork are available exclusively at the Tom Petty online store. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Tom Petty Endowment for Guitars & Innovation.
Watch an “Honorary Doctorate of Music Retrospective” video below:
