The couple will receive their award at the university’s 124th spring commencement at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 16, at McArthur Court, 1601 University St., on the UO campus.

The Presidential Medal, one of the UO’s highest honors, recognizes individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to higher education through their long-standing and extraordinary support. Each medal is hand-forged in solid silver and is a replica of the myrtlewood medallion worn by the university president for ceremonial occasions such as commencement.

Among the previous recipients are Thomas Autzen, Carolyn Chambers, Earle M. Chiles, Charles H. Lundquist and Hill Walker.

"While the university is enormously grateful for the support and generosity of its alumni," says UO President Dave Frohnmayer, "Charles and Gwen Lillis’ support and their gifts have been extraordinary for their visionary impact on the future of this university. Their recent leadership gift of $12 million toward expansion of the business college is but one example. This gift will dramatically reshape the quality and scope as well as the very nature of business education in the twenty-first century."

Frohnmayer also noted that the international communications pioneer is cited frequently as a business visionary, largely for perceiving in the early 1990s that cable television lines could and soon would be used to provide two-way, broadband network services to individual homes. His idea became MediaOne.

Now retired as CEO and chairman of MediaOne Group, an international communications company that AT&T purchased for $58 billion in 1999, Charles Lillis says that as a youth, he could not afford to attend a private university.

Both he and his wife have public school roots and remain strong advocates for public universities.

Charles Lillis received his undergraduate and master’s degree from the University of Washington and his doctorate in 1972 from the UO’s Charles H. Lundquist College of Business. Gwen Lillis holds undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Colorado and was awarded her doctorate in business from Northwestern University.

Charles Lillis has received recognition and awards from business and academic institutions including the Lundquist college’s spring 1999 Visionaries Trailblazer Award.

But it was his wife, Charles Lillis says, who decided the couple should upgrade their planned gift and thereby make a major investment in the UO business school’s future.

"Even though Gwen is not an Oregon alumna, she’s clearly an Oregon admirer," he said.

"The proposed building project was too exciting an opportunity to pass up," Gwen Lillis remarked after hearing the University of Oregon’s plans to create a new learning model for its business students. She saw a creative and innovative building design that integrates the best of the past with space for the future. "It’s a great example of doing it right," she said.

"We see in the business school here an honest openness to be actively involved in the whole business community and a strong desire to make business practitioners part of the business school community," Charles Lillis explained when the couple announced their gift in November 1999. "There is a combination of leadership, faculty excellence and student quality that makes us think something really special will happen here at Oregon."

After earning his UO doctorate, Charles Lillis accepted a faculty position at Washington State University. He then worked in research and development at Du Pont and as general manager for General Electric. In 1984, he became dean of the University of Colorado business school and in 1985, moved to US West’s diversified business group.

In 1995, he became CEO and chairman of MediaOne. By 1997, MediaOne was a Fortune 100 company. AT&T acquired MediaOne in 1999. In 2000, Charles Lillis became a founding partner of LoneTree Capital, a private group partnership headquartered in Denver. Gwen Lillis is managing partner of the Lillis Family Partnership and Castle Rock Investments, LLC.

Charles and Gwen Lillis live in Castle Rock, Colo., and Seattle, Wash. They have three children and one grandchild.

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