Honorary Doctor of Humanities Degree

On Nov. 16, the Graduate Education Committee recommended the awarding of an honorary doctorate to David T. Owsley, a significant force in the world of art and the generous contributor of ethnographic art to the Ball State Museum of Art. Owsley was nominated by David Jackson, chairperson of the Department of Art The nomination was supported by Robert Kvam, dean of the College of Fine Arts, and by Provost Beverley Pitts.

Owsley, the son of Lucy Ball Owsley and the grandson of Frank C. Ball, is a dedicated public servant and humanitarian characterized by his thoughtful and devoted pursuit of art collection, research, preservation and education. In an era of specialization in virtually every field of endeavor including art history, the strength of Owsley's enthusiasm for art is that of a superb generalist. His wide expertise is represented by the extraordinarily diverse works of art that are integrated into nearly 30 percent of the Ball State Museum of Art collection. Single-handedly, his connoisseurship has furnished the museum with collections of art representing ancient China, India and Southeast Asia. In 1978, the Owsley Gallery of Ethnographic Art was dedicated to recognize his magnificent gifts. In addition, Owsley has been a benefactor of the Dallas Museum of Art, where suites of galleries are likewise named in his honor.

Owsley graduated from Harvard University in 1951 and served in the Air Force between 1952 and 1954. He then moved to New York to pursue a career in public relations before matriculating at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where he earned the master of fine arts degree. Owsley received a fellowship in the American Wing of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and subsequently worked as an assistant curator of decorative arts at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He served for two years at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and then was curator of classical, Oriental and decorative Arts at the Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, in Pittsburgh. He has been closely allied with many academic and cultural institutions in the United States, serving recently, for example, on the board of Exhibitions International, New York. In 1989 he received Ball State's President's Medal of Distinction.

Owsley has brought much credit to Ball State through his significant contributions to the art world, higher education and the pursuit of diversity, all the while enriching the cultural life of the Muncie community and greater Indiana. Clearly his efforts have written another chapter in the Ball family's history of philanthropy. In the awarding of an honorary doctorate to Owsley, Ball State University would not only express its gratitude for his generous gifts, but also recognize publicly that such gifts inform important aspects of humanistic endeavor represented by the mission of this academic institution.