SMU’s J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award to honor Dallas inspirational leader

Bob Buford, whose Halftime organization inspires business and professional leaders to direct their talents toward service, will be honored as the 2010 recipient of the J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award at a noon luncheon on Feb. 10 at the Belo Mansion in Dallas.

The award is presented annually by SMU’s Cary Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility to individuals who exemplify the spirit of moral leadership and public virtue. Past winners of the J. Erik Jonsson Award include Ronald G. Steinhart, Michael M. Boone, Zan W. Holmes Jr., Roger Staubach, Caren Prothro, Tom Luce, 
Ron Anderson, 
Jack Lowe, Jr., William T. Solomon, Stanley H. Marcus, Charles C. Sprague and Curtis W. Meadows, Jr. Tickets may be purchased and sponsorship arranged by calling 214-768-4575.

“The Maguire Center is proud to honor a person whose inspiration and guidance have had such a profound and deep impact on the lives of thousands of others in Dallas and around the world," said Maguire Center director Tom Mayo. "Bob Buford has dedicated the second half of his career and life to helping others attain ‘lives of significance,' by which Bob means ‘lives of service.’” 

Until the sale of his company in July 1999, Buford served as Chairman of the Board and CEO of Buford Television, Inc., a family owned cable television business.  He co-founded Leadership Network in 1984, a non-profit church growth consulting firm and became founding chairman in 1988 of what is now known as the Leader to Leader Institute, which helps guide managers in social service organizations. In 1995, Buford wrote Halftime, a book on finding fulfillment in the second half of life that grew to an organization bearing the same name.

J. Erik Jonsson was a founder of Texas Instruments, a strong advocate for education and a public-spirited mayor of Dallas who worked from 1964 to 1971 to improve morale and the image of the city after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He pushed through a $175 million bond that financed a new city hall, the Dallas Convention Center and the Dallas Central Library and was a driving force in the development of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

The Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility is a university-wide center that supports student and faculty ethics-related education and activities, as well as community outreach to private and public institutions in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. More information and links to ticket and sponsorship information are available at http://smu.edu/ethicscenter/about/jonsson.asp.

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