The University of Arkansas has announced a planned gift from alumnus David Fitts ('80) in support of a new program in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.

The gift will create an endowment in support of collaborative and interdisciplinary curricular initiatives that inspire and engage students interested in growing, stretching, and expanding their individual design skills and experiences into new creative territories, with a human-centered emphasis on improving and enhancing quality of life. The gift also will provide funding for an annual visiting professorship, student scholarships, studios, seminars, and lectures.

After graduating from UA with a bachelor of architecture degree, Fitts spent twenty-seven years at NASA, eventually serving as chief of the Johnson Space Center's Habitability and Human Factors Branch and as associate chief for the agency's Human Systems Integration Division. "I think design thinking partnered with human-centered fields is applicable to many, many real-world problems," he said. "And it's important to help students realize this opportunity."

"David Fitts has had a remarkable life and career," said Peter MacKeith, dean of the Fay Jones School. "His accomplishments at NASA, over three decades of creative service to the nation, were founded in part on his architectural education at the university, but moreover on his fundamental belief in the transformative power of design — collaborative, interdisciplinary, human-centered design — to change lives, realize new potentials, and alter futures for humanity. David and I share this belief in design and in the necessity of encouraging new 'design futures' for all Fay Jones School students. His inspirational gift validates the ongoing mission of the school and affords faculty and students a radically expanded set of opportunities in their careers and lives — new 'design futures' for us all."

(Photo credit: Bert Magh)