Phil Knight, who graduated from the University of Oregon with a bachelor’s degree in 1959, will be given an honorary doctorate from his alma mater at a virtual ceremony on June 20.
Knight will be honored as part of the university’s commencement celebration. WNBA No. 1 pick and former University of Oregon star Sabrina Ionescu is the scheduled commencement speaker.
In nominating Knight, the University called out his advances in business and marketing. After obtaining an MBA from Stanford, Knight partnered with his former Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman developed their first running shoe under the Blue Ribbon Sports brand, launching what would later become Nike.
The University wrote, “Under Knight’s leadership and vision, Nike not only developed products across numerous sports, partnered with the best athletes in each, but applied an entrepreneurial approach to constantly growing and ensuring that their athletes were the best, strongest and fastest”.
But the school particularly called out Knight’s extensive philanthropy efforts with many benefiting the University. In 2016, Knight, with his wife Penny, donated $500 million to the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact slated to open in the coming years. The science campus comes with Knight’s lifetime donations to the University making a lasting mark on Oregon’s campus, both on the academic side and athletic side.
Patrick Phillips, Professor of Biology and Special Advisor to the President, said Knight’s merits, “speak directly to an overarching vision and contribution to the academic enterprise writ large. It is a recognition couched in contributions to the entire scope of the mission of The University of Oregon and to society at large. Mr. Knight has demonstrated an unerring commitment to focus on that unstable middle ground of academia in which the mission-driven activities of the University become translated into real-world impact. In this way, Mr. Knight has provided invaluable contributions and intellectual leadership that has yielded, and will continue to yield, unbelievable benefits not only to work at The University of Oregon but throughout the state and the nation as a whole. His additional contributions to innovative business leadership and practice has set a national standard that is worthy of recognition in its own right.”
His nomination statement can be read here.
Photo courtesy Phil Knight
