Tom Petty Receives Honorary Posthumous Doctorate of Music
Tom Petty has been posthumously recognized by the University of Florida with an honorary Doctor of Music degree, and to celebrate, the estate of the late Heartbreakers frontman announced an endowment to the school’s music program.
Dr. Petty earned the academic distinction after UF’s board of trustees voted unanimously in 2021 to recognize the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, who hailed from the same city that houses the university in Gainesville. His younger brother, Bruce Petty, was invited to accept the degree on his behalf at the spring commencement ceremony on Thursday, May 4th.
“I don’t think anyone in our family, including him, thought that he would be linked with the University of Florida this way,” the junior Petty shared in a statement. “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.”
UF School of Music director Kevin Orr added that they were “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 “I Won’t Back Down” singer was previously awarded the university’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 2006.
Meanwhile, Petty’s estate, in partnership with UF, unveiled The Tom Petty Endowment for Guitars & Innovation, which aims to support students enrolled in the Guitar and Music Business & Entrepreneurship programs at UF’s School of Music. The estate laid the foundation with a $100,000 donation, while interested parties are able to contribute to the endowment here.
In conjunction with Tom Petty’s posthumous doctorate of music, the estate issued exclusive reprints of Shepard Fairey’s “An American Treasure” poster, while Gainesville’s Cade Museum will host a screening of Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free, the 2021 documentary centered on the making of his 1994 solo album Wildflowers, on the night of commencement.
