Tom Petty receives posthumous doctorate of music from the University of Florida

5 May, 2023

Tom Petty and Tom Leadon

Tom Petty has been recognised by the University Of Florida with an honorary Doctor Of Music degree.

The late musician and Florida native is also being celebrated with an endowment to the school’s music program that was announced by his estate. According to Petty’s brother Bruce, this was the rock icon’s life-long dream.

“I don’t think anyone in our family, including him, thought that he would be linked with the University of Florida this way,” shared Bruce Petty in an Instagram post. “It’s such a powerful thing, it was his life-long dream, and I know he would just be over-the-top, crazy happy about it.”

UF School of Music director Kevin Orr shared that they were “privileged to honour Tom Petty with an honorary doctorate degree in Music, celebrating not only his extraordinary achievements as an artist, but the ways in which his music has and continues to unite us as a community.” The rock star was previously awarded the university’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 2006.

The University of Florida and Petty’s estate have teamed up to launch The Tom Petty Endowment for Guitars & Innovation to support the next generation of artists in the School Of Music’s Guitar and new Music Business & Entrepreneurship programs. The Petty estate has donated $100,000 in his memory while interested parties are able to contribute to the endowment here.

A 300 count limited-edition commemorative poster of American artist Shepard Fairey’s ‘An American Treasure’ artwork was released exclusively on the Tom Petty web-store. A portion of proceeds will be donated to the new Tom Petty Endowment for Guitars & Innovation.

In other news, last year the Petty estate filed a cease and desist letter over republican Kari Lake’s use of ‘I Won’t Back Down’ following her defeat in the US midterm elections.

The late artist’s estate released a statement that said: “The Tom Petty estate and our partners were shocked to find out that Tom’s song ‘I Won’t Back Down’ was stolen and used without permission or a license to promote Kari Lake’s failed campaign.”

Petty passed away in October 2017 at the age of 66 following an accidental drug overdose.

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