Endowments

The excellence funds listed below are vital to ensuring the department’s ability to attract world-class faculty members. 

• PAT AND SHELBY CARTER ENDOWMENT

  Charter

  The Pat and Shelby Carter Endowment for Educational Excellence has been established as an expression of appreciation for the contributions of Mr. Carter, Adjunct Professor, and his wife, Patricia, have made to the academic and co-curricular life of the College and Graduate School of Business. The funds generated by the endowment are to be used to support programs and activities of the faculty and students in the Department of Marketing Administration, under the direction of the Chair of the Department.

• EDWARD CUNDIFF EXCELLENCE FUND

  Charter

  Funds distributed from the Edward W. Cundiff Memorial Excellence Fund in Marketing will be used in perpetuity to support faculty, students, and programs in the McCombs School of Business. The types and amounts of such uses will be determined by the Dean, at the recommendation of the Chair of the Department of Marketing, and may include, but are not limited to, student recruitment and student programs; salary supplements for faculty to support research, faculty development, curriculum development and course development; salary supplements to attract, retain, develop, and enhance outstanding faculty; alumni programs, honoraria; travel; and other operating expenses for the Department of Marketing. At least once a year, Ed Cundiff will be recognized at an event and/or activity funded by the endowment’s annual distributions.

   

  Founders:

  Drs. William H. and Isabella Cunningham
  Rich, Geoff and Greg Cundiff
  
  

  Contributors:

  Dr. Dale D. Achabal. Santa Clara, CA
  Dr. Arthur Allaway, Northport, AL
  Dr. Richard R. Batsell, Houston, TX
  Dr. Peter D. Bennett, State College, PA
  Dr. Floyd Brandt, Austin, TX
  Dr. Eli P. Cox III, Austin, TX
  Dr. Linda V. Gerber, Austin, TX
  Dr. Alfred J. Hagan, Redondo Beach, CA
  Dr. Karl E. Henion II, Austin, TX
  Dr. Robert Joseph Hoover, Pocatello, ID
  Dr. David and Suzanne Huff, Austin, TX
  Dr. J Jeffrey Inman, Wexford, PA
  Dr. Gaylord and JoAnn Jentz, Austin, TX
  Dr. Daniel M. Laufer, New York, NY
  Dr. Warren S. Martin, Birmingham, AL
  Dr. Dan H. Robertson, College Station, TX
  Dr. John H. Williams, Houston, TX
  

  Memorial Resolution

  Dr. Edward Cundiff, the John A. Beck Centennial Professor Emeritus in Communication was a distinguished member of both the College of Business and the College of Communication faculty at The University of Texas at Austin. His contributions to our University were many and invaluable. He was instrumental in building two academic departments, the Department of Marketing and the Department of Advertising. Both departments achieved top national reputation for the excellence of their programs and the quality of their faculty under his direction.

   

  Dr. Cundiff received a B.A. degree in Economics from Stanford University in 1941, having been a member of Theta Chi. He received an MBA degree in 1942 and an Ed. D. degree from Stanford University in 1952. He was also a Ford fellow at the Harvard School of Business Administration in 1956, and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at Berkeley and at The University of Michigan.

   

  In 1942, Dr. Cundiff served in WWII to lieutenant (senior grade) US Naval Reserve. In the article: “The Stanford Business School at 75 Years” (Stanford Business, May 2000, Volume 68, Number 3) was reported that Edward Cundiff, a member of the MBA Class of 1942, found himself as a Navy Seabee on “Island X” in the Aleutians.

   

  Dr. Cundiff started his career as a retailing executive (1946-48). Later he was an instructor of marketing at San Jose State College from 1949 to 1952. He was an Assistant Professor and later an Associate Professor of marketing at Syracuse University (1952-1958), and was Assistant Dean at Syracuse from 1954 to 1958.

   

  Dr. Cundiff came to The University of Texas at Austin in 1958, where he served as the Chair of the Department of Marketing from 1958 to 1964 and from 1967 to 1971. While a Professor at The University of Texas Marketing Department, he was the recipient of an endowed Chair. From 1973 to 1975, Dr. Cundiff was Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Business and was responsible for its PhD program. He retired as Professor of Marketing in 1977.

   

  Upon retirement from the Department of Marketing, Dr. Cundiff accepted an appointment at Emory University as the Charles H. Carlstadt Professor of Marketing. Dr. Cundiff returned to the University of Texas at Austin in 1987, serving as Chair of the Department of Advertising from 1987 to 1991. He was named the John H. Beck Centennial Professor in Communication from 1987 to 1994, and after his retirement he was named the John H. Beck Centennial Professor Emeritus in Communication from 1994-1996. Dr. Cundiff was named Emeritus Professor of Marketing in 1996 and was inducted into the McCombs School of Business Hall of Fame at The University of Texas in 1993-94.

   

  Dr. Cundiff was a prolific and distinguished author. He wrote seven books and numerous articles. From 1973 to 1976, he was the Editor of The Journal of Marketing, the premier marketing academic journal and was a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Macromarketing. He is credited with insightful editorials and was responsible for charting the direction of marketing academic research both as an author and a leader in the academic community. Dr. Cundiff also served on the Board of the American Marketing Association and was its Vice President for a term.

   

  Dr. Cundiff was elected as a Fellow of the Southern Marketing Association in 1980. He was the first recipient of the L.J. Buchanan Distinguished Professorship at UT San Antonio (1976-77) and was the recipient of a Ford Foundation grant for research in marketing in 1963.

   

  Dr. Cundiff’s contributions and numerous accomplishments were recognized internationally. He served as visiting professor of marketing in the Republic of South Africa, Germany, and Mexico City. He also served as a consultant to the European Productivity Agency (1960-1961) and helped the development of marketing programs at two newly formed business schools in Fontainebleau, France and Palermo, Italy.

   

  Dr. Cundiff was an outstanding scholar and an excellent administrator. His former colleagues and students remember him with much affection and respect. He has inspired and mentored many world–class marketing and advertising academicians and his name is forever tied to The University of Texas at Austin as a leader and a builder of our academic legacy in marketing and in advertising.

   

  Dr. Cundiff was the most loyal and positive friend anyone could have. Never concerned with his own priorities and time, he was always a ready listener and an understanding advisor. His colleagues don’t remember ever having seen Dr. Cundiff in a somber or angry mood. His smile and sense of humor were pervasive and contagious. He was able to build a positive environment within an organization, no matter how many negative factors happened to exist. Dr. Cundiff was a brilliant faculty recruiter, hiring several faculty members who have become thought leaders in the marketing and advertising disciplines. Two of the assistant professors he hired became college presidents.

   

  Dr. Cundiff died on November 8, 2006. He was the son of Harry Thomas and Martha Magdalene (Koltes) Cundiff. He married Margaret Wallace Stroud, (Peggy) on September 8, 1956. Ed Cundiff was preceded in death by his wife and life companion, Peggy (January 18, 2006). He is survived by his three sons: Richard Wallace (Rich), Gregory Edward (Greg), and Geoffrey William (Geoff). His children and grandchildren are his great legacy. He was extremely proud of them and they always had a close and affectionate relationship.

   

  We will always be in debt to Dr. Edward Cundiff for all he has done for our two academic departments, The University of Texas, and the many graduate and undergraduate students that were fortunate enough to be under his tutelage. He was a great friend and an outstanding scholar in the tradition of this great University.

   

• LINDA GOLDEN EXCELLENCE FUND

  Information coming soon

   

• WILLIAM H. CUNNINGHAM EXCELLENCE FUND

  Charter

  The William H. Cunningham Endowed Excellence Fund in Marketing has been created to support the Department of Marketing as determined by the Marketing Chair in consultation with the Dean. Used may include, but are not limited to, faculty retreats, alumni programs, travel, and other operating expenses. Funds may not be used to pay faculty salaries for either research or teaching, nor for scholarships.

   

• J. LAMAR JOHNSON ENDOWMENT

  Charter

  The J. Lamar Johnson Endowment for Excellence in Marketing has been created to support faculty, students and programs in Marketing, including faculty research, curriculum development and student scholarships.

   

• W. T. TUCKER EXCELLENCE FUND IN MARKETING

  Memorial Resolution

  W. T. Tucker, Professor Emeritus of Marketing Administration was born January 26, 1919, in Rushville, Indiana. He died suddenly on December 19, 1990, at his home in Wimberley, Texas.

   

  Tom Tucker was a man of many talents: philosopher, teacher, researcher, counselor, writer, poet, and artist. He was, by education, experience, and proclivity -- and in his own way -- an approach to "Renaissance Man”, a label which he would reject out-of-hand, and a theme which he explored, questioned, and spoofed in panting and in poetry.

   

  He came to The University of Texas at Austin in September of 1959 as Associate Professor of Marketing Administration and was promoted to Professor in 1961. He served the department, the College and Graduate School of Business, and the wider University community for twenty years, retiring in 1979, at which time he was named Professor Emeritus. Before coming to Texas, he taught at Georgia State College in Atlanta, 1954-1959, and at the University of Illinois, 1948-1954. He took leave to teach as a visiting professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst for the academic year 1973-1974.

   

  Tom Tucker graduated from Scarsdale High School in New York State in 1937. He returned that year to his native state of Indiana to study English composition, art, and psychology at DePauw University in Greencastle, where he won awards for both his writing and his scholastic achievement, receiving the A. B. degree in June of 1941. Ever the eclectic, he would combine his undergraduate interests in his later graduate studies and in his life's work.

   

  Fresh out of college, he joined the U.S. Marines, serving as an officer from 1941 to 1945. In 1944, he was wounded during the invasion of Guam. Sensory nerves were damaged in both legs, but that apparently did not slow him down or spoil his golf game in later years.

   

  On June 6, 1942, he married Marjorie Driscoll, his sweetheart, fellow resident of Scarsdale, and fellow student at DePauw, whose attention he first attracted (according to a family account) by "showing off" on a train ride which both were taking from home town back to college. It was a long and productive marriage - in both the social and biological senses - lasting till his death in 1990. Before, during, and after Tom's graduate school years, the Tuckers produced seven children, one boy and six girls: Jeffrey (1946), Nancy (1947), Kathleen (1950), Margaret (1952), Mary (1954), Sarah (1956), and Leah (1959).

   

  From 1948 to 1954, Tom attended graduate school at the University of Illinois, majoring in mass communications, American literature, and psychology. During those years he also taught business letter and report writing and direct mail advertising. He received the M. S. degree in 1950 and the Ph.D. degree in 1955. He went on to teach marketing, advertising, marketing research, and statistics at Georgia State College.

   

  At the University of Texas, Tom developed courses focusing on the social and psychological aspects of personality, identity, class, group, status, culture, and choice. His seminars, his published writings, and the doctoral students he nurtured and inspired helped to lay the foundations for what is now known in marketing circles as the field of "consumer behavior". In spoken and written word, he was forever reminding us that human beings (and animals, too, for the experimental psychologist) respond to stimuli in their own marvelous ways, unknown and often unknowable to the observer, and subject to misinterpretation by him because of his own intent or preconception. No mechanistic theory of behavior will do at all, and any theory will do very little.

   

  Tom's respect for good writing led him to eschew much of the jargon of social science professionals, though he did contribute to their technical journals. His effort was always bent in the direction of making things readable, as well as intellectually defensible.

   

  In his broader service to University and community, Tom played many roles. He was an experienced consultant to business enterprises large and small; among the latter were restaurants started by two of his daughters and their husbands. He served on the editorial boards of The University of Houston Business Review and the Social Science Quarterly. He served a term as Chairman of the Department of Marketing Administration. He was a member of the American Marketing Association and of its Doctoral Consortium, of the Southern Economic Association, the Southwestern Social Science Association, and The American Association of University Professors. He was a supervisor of doctoral dissertations and defender of his students' right to research and write on controversial topics. He served on the University-wide Committee on General Studies and the Educational Policy Committee, conducted a seminar on "personal identity" for Plan II liberal arts students, lectured to U.T. freshmen in orientation, and served on the committee which recommended the University's telephone counseling service for students.

   

  In both formal session and informal conversation, he was a constant stimulus to his colleagues, full of ideas and inspiration, seeing potential for research and analysis in almost every social setting.

   

  Tom was recognized for the quality of his work. His book on the social context of economic behavior was translated into Japanese. He was listed in Who's Who and in American Men of Science. In 1963, the undergraduate CBA Council gave him their teaching excellence award. He received the Henry Maynard Award for the best article on marketing theory during 1974. And in 1980, the Board of Regents approved in his honor the establishment of the W.T. (Tommy) Tucker Excellence Fund in Marketing Administration, to provide grants for doctoral students.

   

  In all of his endeavors, Torn Tucker was aided and abetted by his loving and energetic wife, Marge, whose personality was a fine counterpoint to his own. He in turn supported her many activities, whether that was running a milk-goat farm in Georgia, trying to get into medical school in Texas, or, being denied admission because of her age, settling for training in medical technology and working in Austin hospitals -- a job which she continues to perform to this day.

   

  Their large and active family, with all the joys and anxieties which seven children imply, provided Tom with his own social science practicum, as it were. One of his favorite stories was that of four or five Tucker children lined up stair-step across the room, pouting and lamenting, "We don't have anybody to play with!" He used all of his skills as daddy, artist, psychologist, and friend to help them through their moments of crisis.

   

  When he was nominated for the rank of Professor Emeritus, his chairman observed that whoever conceived that rank must surely have had in mind as a role model someone like Tom Tucker. One could easily argue the same point about whoever conceived the notions of intellectual, scholar, gentleman, gadfly, colleague, and friend.

   

  Tom himself would surely chuckle and scoff at such sentiments.

   

• ROBERT E. WITT EXCELLENCE FUND

  Charter

  The Robert E. Witt Faculty Excellence Fund was established in honor of the former Chairman of the department. All income from the endowment will be used to support academic and research activities of the faculty members in the Marketing Department.