Robert F. McDermott - Awards and Recognition

Awards and Recognition

Testaments to his lifelong interests in education are an elementary school and a Clinical Science Building of the University Health Science Center which bear his name. A grateful community designated a section of Interstate 10 in Texas running through San Antonio between I-35 outside of Downtown to Loop 1604 as the McDermott Freeway in recognition of his many initiatives as a pioneer civic entrepreneur, both in education and economic development. Academic chairs in his honor have been established at the United States Air Force Academy and the United States Military Academy, and the library at the Air Force Academy also bears his name.

For his leadership in business, he was selected to the Texas Business Hall of Fame in 1987 and the American National Business Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1993, West Point selected him to receive its Distinguished Graduate Award. In 1994 Fortune selected him as Laureate in Junior Achievement's National Business Hall of Fame. In 1996, the International Insurance Society inducted him into the Insurance Hall of Fame. In 1998, he was awarded the Harvard Business School's highest honor, the Alumni Achievement Award, as a tribute to his accomplishments at the Air Force Academy and USAA. He received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement in June 1999.