Then & Now

Editors’ Note: This feature appears as it was published in the winter 2019 edition of UT Dallas Magazine. Titles or faculty members listed may have changed since that time.

A view of the Jonsson Center, Green Hall and University Theater in the 1970s and The same view after 40 years.

On a Sunday morning in the early 1960s, Margaret McDermott joined her husband, UT Dallas co-founder Eugene McDermott, on a drive to the country.

When they arrived at an empty swath of cotton fields that was destined to become UTD’s campus, Eugene asked Margaret what she thought.

“I told him it needed trees,” she recalled at the 2010 dedication marking the completion of the first phase of the Campus Enhancement project.

Thanks to Mrs. McDermott’s vision and support, the campus has become a welcoming, beautifully landscaped area shaded by more than 6,800 trees.

See more of campus’ dramatic change.