Brady Deaton, University of Missouri chancellor emeritus has been honored with a 2014 Missourian Award according to a press release from the MU News Bureau. The Missourian Award honors the state’s most outstanding citizens who have had a significant impact on their community and on the state’s vitality.
To be honored with the award, recipients must have been born in the state of Missouri or become famous in Missouri. Nominees must have made an outstanding contribution to their community, state or nation in one of the following fields: civics, business, arts or politics. Past winners of the award include Walter Cronkite, George Washington Carver, Walt Disney, Mark Twain and Harry S. Truman.
“I am deeply honored to receive this award and to be recognized as someone who has lived up to the spirit of Missouri, its heritage and values,” Deaton said. “I feel a strong connection to the Thomas Jefferson philosophy on which the university was based and after working so hard with students, faculty, staff and alumni for the university for all of these years, this is an incredible recognition of what I tried to do. I have enjoyed meeting Missourians all across the state, and now I am proud to be one of them in this special way.”
Deaton served as chancellor of MU from 2004-2013. Prior to holding that position, Deaton joined MU as a professor and chair of the agricultural economics department in the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources before being appointed chief of staff in the Office of the Chancellor in 1993, deputy chancellor in 1997, and provost in 1998. In 2011, President Barack Obama appointed Deaton the chairman of the Board for International Food and Agriculture Development (BIFAD).
Under Deaton’s leadership since 2004:
- MU’s total enrollment grew by 7,745 students (28.7 percent), and minority enrollment rose by 113 percent.
- Research expenditures (the measure of MU’s research activity) grew by 47.5 percent, and the amount awarded in research grants to MU rose by 46 percent.
- MU’s For All We Call Mizzou campaign’s goal was increased to $1 billion in 2005, and Deaton announced in 2008 that the goal had been reached one month early.
- As a result of Deaton’s commitment to reducing the carbon footprint of the university, he signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2009 and submitted MU’s first Climate Action Plan with the goal of eventually achieving carbon neutrality.
- Mizzou joined the prestigious Southeastern Conference, a highly successful, stable athletic conference that offers exciting opportunities and unparalleled visibility for MU and its student-athletes.
Deaton will receive the award on Saturday, Sept. 27 at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City, Mo.
