Tom Petty Receives Honorary Posthumous Doctorate of Music

Tom Petty has been posthumously acknowledged by the College of Florida with an honorary Physician of Music diploma, and to rejoice, the property of the late Heartbreakers frontman introduced an endowment to the college’s music program.

Dr. Petty earned the tutorial distinction after UF’s board of trustees voted unanimously in 2021 to acknowledge the Rock & Roll Corridor of Famer, who hailed from the identical metropolis that homes the college in Gainesville. His youthful brother, Bruce Petty, was invited to simply accept the diploma on his behalf on the spring graduation ceremony on Thursday, Might 4th.

“I don’t suppose anybody in our household, together with him, thought that he could be linked with the College of Florida this fashion,” the junior Petty shared in a press release. “It’s such a strong factor, it was his life-long dream, and I do know he would simply be over-the-top, loopy glad about it.”

UF Faculty of Music director Kevin Orr added that they have been “privileged to honor Tom Petty with an honorary doctorate diploma in Music, celebrating not solely his extraordinary achievements as an artist, however the methods wherein his music has and continues to unite us as a group.” The “I Received’t Again Down” singer was beforehand awarded the college’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 2006.

In the meantime, Petty’s property, in partnership with UF, unveiled The Tom Petty Endowment for Guitars & Innovation, which goals to help college students enrolled within the Guitar and Music Enterprise & Entrepreneurship applications at UF’s Faculty of Music. The property laid the inspiration with a $100,000 donation, whereas events are in a position to contribute to the endowment here.

Along with Tom Petty’s posthumous doctorate of music, the property issued unique reprints of Shepard Fairey’s “An American Treasure” poster, whereas 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 evening of graduation.