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enhancing UT Prestigious Harrington Fellows Program Enters Second Decade
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Donald and Sybil Harrington are familiar, it could be because they built a hugely successful independent Texas oil and gas operation — or because they chose to share their good fortune to aid worthy causes. The Amarillo couple married in 1935 and later created the Don and Sybil Harrington Foundation to benefit medicine, education, and the arts. Today the Harrington legacy remains far-reaching, not only in the Texas Panhandle but across the nation. After Donald’s 1974 death, Sybil, who lived another 24 years, conceived the idea of a fellowship in his honor, a program to support gifted and ambitious young scholars of all disciplines at levels matching or exceeding prestigious longstanding programs.
credits: Marsha Miller
except Harrington portrait, courtesy Harrington family
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Distinguished Alumnus and fellow Amarilloan Wales Madden, Jr., BA ’50, LLB ’52, Life Member, was instrumental in bringing together Sybil, the Harrington Foundation (now affiliated with the Amarillo Area Foundation), and the University to create the Donald D. Harrington Fellows Program. Madden worked with former UT president William Cunningham, the late Shirley Bird Perry, and then-executive vice president and provost Gerhard Fonken to design the framework, and the first Donald D. Harrington Fellowships were awarded in 2001. Since then, scholars from 94 universities in the United
States and 10 other nations have received 48 faculty fellowships and 102 graduate fellowships. These highly sought-after fellowships have a considerable impact at UT: they enhance its reputation among the world’s top universities, encourage relationships with those institutions, and bring to campus some of the brightest scholars out there. Dedicating themselves to a period of intense study in their chosen field, Harrington fellows collaborate and explore ideas together and with other scholars on campus. They attend events like receptions and lunches that build a sense of community. Some fellows