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University of Pittsburgh to rename its honors college after alumnus financing it with $65 million gift

David C. Frederick, left, Sophia Lynn, Baroness Valerie Amos, Master of University College (Oxford), and Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, right.
Hilary Schwab Photography
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University of Pittsburgh
David C. Frederick, left, Sophia Lynn, Baroness Valerie Amos, Master of University College (Oxford), and Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, right.

The University of Pittsburgh will soon name its honors college after the donor financing the school.

David C. Frederick, a 1983 Pitt alumnus and Washington D.C. attorney, has argued before the Supreme Court more than 50 times representing a broad range of clients — from workers and immigrants to foreign governments and the United States. Frederick was the first Pitt student to receive the Rhodes scholarship. He went on to earn a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Oxford and a juris doctor degree from the University of Texas School of Law.

He and his wife, Sophie Lynn, are backing the honors college at Pitt with a total of $70 million, and University College at Oxford University in England with $35 million. Pitt will receive $5 million outright and the rest of the money will create a permanent endowment valued at $65 million.

Pitt’s honors college was established in 1986, building upon what had been the University Honors Program, which launched in 1978. Frederick's donation will fund study abroad and study away scholarships, stipends for internships and research experiences, as well as participation in academic and professional conferences. According to the university, the money will also fund mentorship programs for students from first-generation and historically under-represented backgrounds.

Honors college dean Nicola Foote said that the gift will significantly expand the range of learning opportunities for honors students.

The goal is "to support a diverse body of intellectually ambitious students in an expansive range of unique enrichment experiences,” Foote said in a release.

Frederick envisions the school taking on an interdisciplinary focus, one which would bring "ideas from physics into literature or history into sociology or engineering into politics, and to create an environment in which those kinds of interdisciplinary interests can not only be cultivated but celebrated and nurtured."

He called it "an incredible opportunity for the University of Pittsburgh to be an even greater place than it already is."

Frederick said he hoped the college could become a flagship of the entire university, "and become a magnet for the very most talented students of all backgrounds regardless of their economic or ethnic or national status." Ultimately he said he hoped it would become "a place where there’s a community of people helping and supporting each other to bring out the best in their own abilities."

The David C. Frederick Honors College will be officially celebrated on Sept. 1.